A Designed Beauty of Synergy
by zaluzianskya
Summary: While tracking down her missing father, Akiko Narumi gets in over her head. Now she's stuck protecting the city of Fuuto from monsters alongside her new partner, an amnesiac girl named Wakana. [AU where Wakana fell in the well. Slow-burn AkiWaka. Contains canon-typical violence.] [First arc is complete! Story is on indefinite hiatus while future arcs are planned.]
1. Diamonds Under Pressure

This story is currently a work in progress. "The Sum of Our Parts" is a six-part arc, after which the story will go on a brief hiatus while I work on the arc after that.

* * *

 **The Sum of Our Parts / Diamonds Under Pressure**

Akiko Narumi stared up at the building in front of her. This was a billiards hall—was this really where she was supposed to be?

"Narumi Detective Agency," she read aloud off the sign on the side door. This was definitely it, even if it didn't look like it. She shoved the little map she'd drawn back into her pocket and took a deep breath. Time to get this over with.

The door opened. Akiko squeaked in surprise and ducked behind the corner, clutching her messenger bag tightly. When she took a peek around it and saw the man who'd come out, her heart just about stopped.

That was him, no question about it.

He carried a briefcase, and he was wearing a super-cool white suit and fedora, but his face was one she would never forget. This was, without a doubt, her father. Sokichi Narumi.

For a detective, he sure wasn't paying attention, she thought. He didn't even notice she was there as he tossed a leg over his weird-looking motorcycle and started the machine up. Of course he didn't see her, it was nighttime. And maybe he had somewhere important to be, so he wasn't paying attention.

As Sokichi revved his motorcycle, Akiko could see headlights shining down the street. A car was turning the corner. And not just any car... a taxi.

She grinned. _Idea!_

Sokichi's motorcycle took off into the night. Akiko jumped out in front of the taxi, waving her arms. "Taxi, taxi!" she cried. "Follow that bike!"

* * *

The taxi pulled up at a wharf in Fuuto's isolated warehouse district. Beside a pier was the back half of Sokichi Narumi's motorcycle.

Just the back half.

Akiko circled around it in confusion. Okay, so her dad had... cut his bike in half... and then gone where? This was a pier, so... out on the water? She glanced out, scanning the river, but it was dark. Even if he was out there, would she see him?

The first thing she did see was the island in the distance and the huge building built upon it. Even at this time of night, there were lights on. But they weren't strong enough to illuminate the water; she had to rely on moonlight for that.

There. What was that? A figure receding into the distance on... some kind of jetski? Did he take his bike onto a jetski? Why would he only take the front half?

Well, whatever. Akiko wasn't about to lose him. She looked around hurriedly and found a small motorboat tied to the pier, the sort one operated by pulling a cord. "Thank goodness," she breathed. She didn't know if she had it in her to hotwire a boat—whether it be because she couldn't do it morally, or because she didn't have the time to waste figuring out how hotwiring even worked.

"Sorry about this," she whispered to the boat as she started it up. She'd bring it back when she was done, though, so no harm done. Right?

* * *

She climbed out of the boat and started across the rocky shoreline, doing her best to remain just out of Sokichi's sight. When she came to where he'd left his ride she saw that it wasn't just a jetski; he'd somehow hooked up the front of his bike to it. Of all the ridiculous things— What the heck _was_ this thing?

She didn't have the time to examine it in detail, though. She was losing him.

It was clear that his target was that building. There was nothing else on this isolated rock worth anyone's time. Not that she had any idea what was in there. Maybe some kind of lost object he was hunting down for a client. Or a cheating husband who happened to work here.

Sokichi circled around the building to a rear entrance. Akiko didn't follow him around the corner until he'd gotten the door open somehow—she couldn't get a good look from this vantage point, but whatever he was using made a weird noise and was way bulkier than your standard lockpick. Just what kind of weird business did her dad get up to these days?

Akiko counted to ten, then followed through the door. But once she was inside her heart sank. She couldn't see her father anywhere. Just a long, dimly-lit, branching maintenance corridor.

As she passed a branch, someone grabbed her and pulled her around the corner.

"Eek!" She struggled to pull her arm away. "What the—" When she saw the face of her captor, though, she went slack. It was him.

He looked half confused, half angry. "Why are you following me? Are you with the organization?"

"What organization?" She tried again to yank her arm away. When he tightened his grip, she said, "Jeez, Dad, you're hurting me!"

Instantly Sokichi released her and stepped back. His gaze turned downward to his hand, then to the sleeve-covered arm he'd been grasping. He looked spooked, like a man who'd just opened his eyes to find himself standing at the edge of a cliff. "Akiko?"

She didn't know what to make of that look on his face. Akiko sunk back slightly and nodded. "Dad, what's going on? It's been ten years and you haven't called _once_ and now you have this weird bike and you're skulking around in weird buildings. I didn't hear about any of this!"

Sokichi pressed his finger against his lips. "Shh!" His voice was low. "It can't be helped right now... Akiko, stay close to me, but don't make a sound. And whatever you do, don't touch me."

Akiko blinked, confused. "What the..."

"I'll..." He sighed. "I'll explain later. Right now, I'm in the middle of a very important case."

"What kind of case?"

"I'm here to rescue a girl who's being held captive and used as a tool." A horrified look crossed Akiko's face, and Sokichi hurried to add, "She's called the Child of Fate, and... well, I guess you'll see for yourself."

What kind of name was "the Child of Fate"?

Akiko was starting to get the impression she was in way over her head. So she did as her father told her. She followed behind him at a safe distance, close enough that she wouldn't get lost but just far enough away that she wouldn't brush up against him accidentally. (Maybe he was worried about his suit? It did look expensive.)

Sokichi led her down so many twisting corridors that she started to get dizzy. She stumbled and caught herself on a support pillar.

When she reoriented her gaze, she saw her.

She was a girl about Akiko's age, wearing a long white gown. She had long black hair that was messy and tangled, and she would have been pretty if it weren't for the bags under her eyes. She didn't seem to notice either of the Narumis; she passed by quickly, walking along a perpendicular corridor.

Sokichi and Akiko met each other's gaze. They both nodded emphatically.

They picked up their pace, turning the corner to follow the girl. Sokichi stepped in front of her to block her way, while Akiko stayed behind her.

The girl stopped. She looked at each of the Narumis in turn. "Who are you?" she demanded snottily. "You don't work here."

Sokichi pushed up the brim of his fedora. "I was sent by a client who wants you out of here. Let's go."

"Why would I want to go anywhere with you?"

"You're being used, aren't you?" Akiko spoke up.

The girl looked over her shoulder at Akiko. "Eh?"

"I mean, that's what Dad said. So why do you want to stay here?"

Sokichi looked like he wanted to say something, but he remained silent to let the girl answer.

"I was told to," she said.

"That's stupid!"

"Akiko," Sokichi said warningly.

Akiko shut her mouth.

The girl scowled. "I'm going back to work." But when she tried to walk past Sokichi, he grabbed her arm. Her eyes widened in disbelief. She struggled to pull away and called out, "Guards!"

A number of men in tailored suits flooded the hallway from both directions. In shock, Sokichi released the girl. She took off.

Akiko let out a worried whine. She drew closer to her father. "Dad? Um, what should we..."

Sokichi was quiet for a moment. Finally he spoke, handing her the briefcase he was carrying. "Go after the girl."

"And leave you here?!"

He nodded. "I can handle this. Go, Akiko."

She hesitated only for a second. Her dad had been doing this job for a long time. He had to know what he was doing, right? So Akiko nodded firmly and ran off after the girl in white.

* * *

The hallways were narrow and dim and twisty. Akiko had no idea where she was.

But the exposed piping of the maintenance area her father had led her into gave way to a hallway that looked more like that of an office building. The lighting was way off, though. Everything was tinted with an unnatural green hue.

Through a doorway at the end of the hall, Akiko could see her. The girl in white was leaning over a glass display case, examining its contents.

Akiko set her jaw and clenched her fists. She still didn't know what was going on here, but she knew her dad needed her help.

She stormed into the room. "Hey, you! 'Child of Fate' or whatever your name is!"

The girl looked up in shock. "The guards should have stopped you."

"Yeah, well, my dad fights bad guys for a living." Or something like that. That was what detectives did, right? He'd always made it sound like that back when she was seven or eight. "Why don't you want us to help you?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "I don't need any help. Now go away, I'm trying to work."

"What're you working on?" Akiko looked at the display case the girl was standing at. It was full of tiny, colorful stick-shaped objects with weird symbols on them. Curious, she set the briefcase down and tugged on the glass top. "It's stuck!"

"Don't do that!" the girl exclaimed. She grabbed Akiko by the wrists and shoved her away from the case. "I worked hard on these Memories. You'll mess them up."

"Memories?"

The girl clicked her tongue against her teeth. "You don't even know that much? Worthless..."

Akiko's cheeks puffed up.

Seemingly losing interest in Akiko, the girl's eyes wandered. When they landed on the briefcase on the floor, she lit up. She crouched down and opened it up, heedless of Akiko's protests when she realized what was happening.

Inside was a strange, bulky plastic gadget of some kind with two slots on the top that looked just the right size to hold the "Memories" in that display case. Conveniently, the briefcase also held six of those Memories, too, but their design was different. They were translucent and had a less sinister vibe to them.

"What... are these?" Akiko asked in confusion.

The girl dropped the briefcase and scooted backward in disgust. "Who—who made those things?! That driver is—"

Akiko tilted her head. She picked up the bulky object and one of the Memories—blue with a white letter D on the label. The letter was broken up into several segments, apparently meant to represent a diamond's faces. Or so she guessed by the English word "DIAMOND" repeated over and over in the background. "I don't know. My dad told me to hold it. I guess I wasn't supposed to open it..." Oops. She set the Memory back down in its spot and closed the briefcase.

When she stood up and looked back down at the Child of Fate, the latter was curled in on herself. She looked downright disturbed.

"Are... you okay?" Akiko ventured. She leaned down and held her hand out toward the girl.

The girl slapped Akiko's hand away. She scrambled to her feet, hands clutching the fabric of her dress so tightly her knuckles were white. "Don't you touch me! I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just—Maybe I'm _their_ tool, but I'm not going to be yours!"

"What are you _talking_ about?!"

The sound of gunshots firing echoed down the hall. Footsteps approached. Akiko gasped and clutched the briefcase close to her chest, but the Child of Fate must have taken her motion as something suspicious. She grabbed the briefcase.

"Hey—"

"I'm not going to let you become one with me!" She darted through the room to a tall, narrow cylinder in one corner—it looked like some scifi teleporter machine. Sure enough, when she stepped through she instantly vanished into thin air.

In the next instant, a number of combatants burst into the room. Several of the men wore black suits and could very easily have been the guards who'd ambushed Akiko and Sokichi, except for the weird-looking masks on their faces. One of them, though, was at odds with the others, and he looked very different. He was clad all in black with a helmet over his head that looked like a human skull. Around his waist was a belt with a buckle that looked like the gadget in the briefcase, but with only one Memory slot.

The skull man locked eyes with Akiko. He faltered and took a blow.

"Akiko, hide!" the man ordered her. That voice... it couldn't be.

"Dad?"

"Now!"

Akiko's first instinct was to rush toward the teleporter booth or _whatever_ it was the Child of Fate had disappeared into. But it didn't activate when she stepped inside. She slapped her hands against the walls and looked around for a control panel, trying very hard not to mind the sounds of gunshots and explosions in the background. Finally she settled for ducking and covering her head with her arms until it was all over.

Finally, the sounds of battle died down. When Akiko dared to peek, the skull man was standing alone in the middle of the room. The men in the masks were nowhere to be seen.

The skull armor broke away and there stood Sokichi Narumi, clad in white. He stumbled and fell against a computer console.

"Dad!"

Before Akiko could take even two steps toward him, Sokichi held up his hand and sternly ordered, " _Don't._ "

"Eh?" Akiko froze in place, an expression on her face like that of a wounded puppy.

Sokichi forced himself back to his feet. He looked Akiko over to make sure she was unharmed, but then he frowned. "Where's the briefcase?"

"That weird girl took it. She went through there—" Akiko pointed. "—and then VWOOM, she disappeared!"

Sokichi glanced at the teleporter. He sighed. "We have to go find her. Come on."

"Wait. _Stop_ ," Akiko insisted. "What's going on here?! Who is that girl? What were those things in that briefcase? What _is_ this place, and what—what's that thing you turned into?!"

A pained look was evident on Sokichi's face. He turned and limped toward the door. "I'll explain along the way."

* * *

He explained.

As they climbed flight after flight of stairs, he told her about the Museum syndicate and the Gaia Memories they distributed to the people of Fuuto. He told her that a friend had provided him with the Skull Memory, allowing him to fight back. He told her that the Child of Fate being held captive here was an amnesiac girl being used for a strange ability she had—she was the one responsible for the Gaia Memories.

"Who sent you to rescue her?" Akiko asked.

"The same friend who helped me become Skull."

Akiko's legs were practically screaming by the time they reached the top floor of the building. When they got there, she certainly wasn't expecting to see the Child of Fate suspended in a glowing crystal like something out of a weird fantasy movie.

Sokichi limped toward the crystal, but Akiko ran ahead of him. She looked up at it in awe. The girl inside was completely still, her eyes shut like she was in suspended animation.

"Akiko, wait—"

But it was too late. Before her father could finish his warning to her, she reached out and touched her hand to the crystal.

There was a crack.

* * *

Akiko's vision went white.

* * *

When her vision reoriented itself, she was standing in the middle of a row of bookshelves that extended what seemed like forever in every direction, including downward. She wasn't standing on anything; everything besides the shelves was pure white.

Instinctively, she grabbed onto a shelf and clung for dear life. But she didn't fall. This wasn't some silly cartoon.

"...what the heck?" she muttered to herself. She let go of the shelf and looked around. "I didn't hear about this..."

She heard a gasp. She whirled around just in time to see the Child of Fate duck behind a bookshelf.

"Come back here!" Akiko ran after her.

The girl threw a book at Akiko. "Stay away from me!"

"I'm not going to do anything to you! I don't even know what this place is!"

"Tch." Akiko turned and saw the girl sitting on top of a bookshelf behind her. "You managed to get in here and you don't even know where you are? Ridiculous..."

"No, I don't! Is this where you make those Gaia Memories?"

The girl quirked an eyebrow upward. "You really don't know anything."

Akiko folded her arms across her chest and pouted.

The girl sighed. " _No_ , I don't make them in here. How would I get them out to the real world? Nothing in here really exists." She hopped off of the shelf and landed on her feet in front of Akiko. Plucking a book off the nearest shelf, she added, "This is the Gaia Library. It's a collection of all of the Earth's memories."

"Memories..." Akiko repeated.

"I use the information I find in here to make Gaia Memories out there."

"But those things hurt people!" Or so Akiko's father had told her.

The girl frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"They turn people into monsters, and sometimes people lose their minds. Those things are making the city cry!" Sure, Akiko didn't know the first thing about Fuuto, but that was what Sokichi had said. It was good enough for her to go on.

The girl scoffed. "What does that have to do with me? I'm just doing what I'm told to do."

"Why? Don't you have anything better to do?"

The girl's haughty look faltered and Akiko remembered the rest of what Sokichi had told her.

"...You don't have any memories of your own, do you?"

The Child of Fate glared furiously at Akiko. She shoved the book in her hands back onto the shelf and turned away in a huff.

"Wait—"

The shelves started to shift and rearrange themselves. Some zipped out of view. A row interspersed itself between Akiko and the girl.

"Hey—" Akiko tried to squeeze between two shelves. They slammed together to block her way. "Just listen to me!"

"Go away!"

Akiko started climbing up the shelf that was in her way. "I don't know how!" She poked her head over the top. "Coming down!"

"Huh?"

And she launched herself over the top of the shelf. She tried to land in a cool pose in front of the girl, but wound up falling on her butt.

The girl laughed incredulously. "You're so annoying!"

Akiko got to her feet. She grabbed the girl's hands and shook them vehemently. "Me and my dad are here to help you out, okay? Do you really like being held captive here?"

"I... Do I like it?" The girl looked like she'd smelled something disgusting, but she didn't try to pull away. "That doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters! You don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

"But I was told..."

"Who cares?!"

The girl extricated her hands from Akiko's and smoothed her gown. "Okay. Then why do I have to listen to you?"

"Um— well..." Akiko whined. "I didn't hear about this, I didn't know I was gonna have to argue logic with some weird library girl! I was just trying to find my dad! Look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. It's not like you have to go with us once you're out or anything. But there's someone outside of this place who wanted my dad to find you."

"Someone outside?"

Akiko nodded. "I don't know who, but they're someone who cares about you! Like maybe your family or something!"

"My... family?" The girl stared, but not at Akiko. Her eyes were blank. Slowly she reached one hand up and clutched at her hair. "Family?"

"H-hey, are you..."

"Family? Do I—" The bookshelves around them started to shift again, slowly at first, picking up speed until soon they were just a series of blurs surrounding the two of them. The girl fell to her knees and shrieked.

* * *

 _Crack._

* * *

A flash of light blinded Akiko. She blinked and found herself back in the real world, hand on the crystal containing the Child of Fate. A crack expanded outward in the crystal from where her hand met it.

It broke apart and the girl came spilling out into Akiko's arms. The briefcase fell to the floor.

"Akiko." Sokichi nodded toward the stairway.

"Right!"

Before they could get far, lights began to flood the room. Bullets filled the air.

"Get down!" Sokichi grabbed the Child of Fate's shoulder roughly and pulled her, and by extension Akiko, closer to the floor.

"They found us? I didn't hear about this," Akiko moaned.

The Child of Fate stirred. She looked around with bleary eyes and reached for the briefcase.

With the windows shattered, helicopters flew close and unloaded their cargo: More of those guards in the masks—Masquerade Dopants—leapt into the building and stormed the position where Akiko, her father, and their charge were crouching. Leading them was another Dopant, a feminine figure colored red and black with gorgonesque yellow hair.

Sokichi got to his feet, Lost Driver in hand. "Akiko, get ready to take her and run."

"You're not going anywhere with Wakana!" The female Dopant lifted her hand and flung a ball of—Akiko could only describe it as _energy_. Akiko grabbed the Child of Fate—Wakana?—and skittered to one side, while Sokichi ducked and rolled in the opposite direction.

"Wakana?" the Child of Fate repeated blankly.

"Go!" Sokichi exclaimed.

Akiko grabbed Wakana's hand and ran for the stairs. She stumbled when she heard a bullet whiz past her ear, but Wakana redoubled her grip on Akiko's hand and tugged her forward.

"I thought you didn't want to go anywhere?"

"I don't want to die, either!"

Amidst the chaos, Akiko could hear her father's footsteps limping along behind hers. But then another bullet fired and she heard him crash to the floor.

Wakana tugged Akiko's hand. "Come _on_!"

But Akiko was frozen. "Dad? Dad!" She crouched beside him. His white jacket was soaked with red.

"Akiko... You have to get her out of here," Sokichi gasped out. "Sorry. You shouldn't have gotten... involved in this."

"Dad, get up!"

"He's obviously not capable of that," Wakana pointed out with a roll of her eyes.

"Shut up!"

Sokichi shook his head. "Please. Finish the case for me."

Akiko could no longer see straight. The tears blurring her eyes kept her from being able to make out his face. She was too numb to stop Wakana from dragging her toward the staircase. She turned to look back over her shoulder just in time to see the female Dopant finishing the job with another ball of energy.

They hadn't even made it down the stairs when Akiko tugged her hand away from Wakana's and collapsed. "No way. This isn't—No way—"

"What are you doing?" Wakana demanded.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Akiko screeched. "You don't know anything! That was my dad! I finally found my dad again and now—"

Wakana stared down at Akiko blankly. The sounds of the enemy approaching grew closer. "You can't just sit here, though. We'll die too!"

"What are we supposed to do, then?!"

Wakana hesitated. "There's... a way. We can fight back. But..."

Akiko looked up. Wakana was biting her lip and looking down at the briefcase in her hands. "That thing... that was like Dad's Skull thing."

"It's _called_ a Driver. It will give you the power to fight, but—"

Akiko sniffled. She wiped her eyes and got to her feet. "Fine. Whatever. What do I have to do?"

"Argh...!" Wakana stomped her foot. "I really don't want to do this!" She flung the briefcase open like she was ripping off a bandage and thrust the Driver toward Akiko's waist. A belt shot out from either side of it and wrapped around her, and with a flash of light, a matching Driver appeared around Wakana's waist.

"Eh?!" Akiko pointed at Wakana's Driver in confusion.

"Just take one of them!" Wakana grabbed a cream-colored Memory with a stylized C on the front and pressed the button on the front. A voice called out, _**CLAYDOLL!**_

"Um—" Akiko grabbed the Diamond Memory. "Okay, I'll try this one!" _**DIAMOND!**_

Wakana pushed the Claydoll Memory into the righthand slot of her Driver. It disappeared and reappeared in Akiko's Driver. "Push it down."

"Right. O-okay." She did so and followed up by pushing Diamond into the lefthand slot. The design was pretty intuitive. She pushed the two halves of the Driver apart and they opened up into a W shape.

 _ **CLAYDOLL! DIAMOND!**_ A jazzy tune emanated from the Driver. Armor like Skull's materialized around Akiko's body—split down the middle, beige with maroon trim on the right and cyan with glittering white trim on the left.

And all of a sudden, Akiko wasn't alone. "What the—what's going on here?" She could feel a profound sense of disgust; of being violated. They weren't her emotions, but she felt them as keenly as though they were. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Wakana's body sprawled unconscious on the stairs.

 _"Let's get this over with,"_ Wakana insisted.

The floating woman Dopant had reached the top of the stairs. It looked like they didn't have a choice.

They fought.


	2. Face the Music

**The Sum of Our Parts / Face the Music**

The chair behind Sokichi Narumi's desk spun lazily. Akiko stared blankly up at the ceiling.

She'd barely slept the night before. After they'd barely made it away from that fight alive, Wakana had used her magic library to figure out how Sokichi's jetski/motorcycle operated. (Akiko never did get the chance to return the boat she'd borrowed.) It had also been Wakana who'd figured out the way back to the Narumi Detective Agency and Wakana who'd looked up how to pick the office lock in the dead of night. And then Wakana had collapsed in one of the chairs by the door while Akiko flopped into the chair behind the desk, and they'd both tried and failed to sleep.

Akiko didn't even know who the client was that had asked Sokichi to save Wakana. After giving up on sleep an hour ago she'd tried looking through his files and found nothing. The only real option was to wait for the client to show themself—but how would she know the real client from someone following them and trying to steal Wakana back?

The chair spun slowly toward the wall and then back out to face the office. Wakana was standing in front of the desk, hands on her hips.

Akiko screamed, practically jumping out of her skin. "D-don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I'm hungry," Wakana pouted.

"Then get something to eat." Akiko waved toward the little kitchen area of the office.

Wakana wandered toward the kitchen with a confused look on her face. Akiko sighed and slumped forward onto the desk.

The desk was nice and neat. There was a typewriter right in front of her. To one side was a phone that looked straight out of the 1940s, but upon closer examination proved to have a caller ID display and a number pad rather than a dial. To the other side stood a row of books held in place with bookends.

She plucked out one of the books. _The Long Goodbye_ by Raymond Chandler? She didn't know her dad was into Western novels. She didn't know a lot about her dad, really. And now that she had the chance to find out...

The book slipped out of Akiko's hand. She buried her face in her arms.

* * *

The girl in the white nightgown opened the refrigerator.

There wasn't much there. A jug that said _milk_ sat on the top shelf, the white liquid inside it almost depleted. Beside it was a carton that read "One Dozen Eggs", but only three were still inside. There were some vegetables in the bottom compartment. That would be simple, she decided. She decided on something long, thin, and orange. It wasn't the plain white rice she usually had for every meal, but it would suffice.

Nibbling on the carrot, she replayed the previous night in her mind. "Wakana". That commander had called her "Wakana". She mouthed the name to herself, but it evoked no sense of recognition.

She... _Wakana_... looked over at the desk. The girl she'd come home with was lying there motionless. Had she gone back to sleep?

Her name was Akiko Narumi, and this was the Narumi Detective Agency. Wakana knew more about this girl and this little office after ten hours than she'd known about the organization in... she didn't even know how long she'd been there. Although she wasn't really clear on what a detective was supposed to be. Somebody who "fights bad guys", Akiko had said. Apparently somebody who retrieves missing objects for clients, Wakana could deduce.

She could look it up. Her eyes went wide as she realized this. She could look something up just because it interested her—not because she was being told to for a production order.

As Wakana stared in awe down at the vegetable in her hand, a knock came at the office door. She stifled a shout into something more like a squeak. Akiko bolted to her feet.

Even without wearing that Driver they knew were both thinking the same thing. _We've been followed._

* * *

When no answer came, Noriko Sugiyama knocked again.

Finally the door inched open. Noriko could see a woman's eye peering through the crack. "Who's there?"

"I—" Noriko stammered. "I'm here to see Detective Narumi. I need his help."

"With what?"

Noriko huffed indignantly. "With finding my little Noodle! Is this or is this not a detective agency?!"

"Just a sec." The door shut again. Noriko could hear the sounds of footsteps and muffled voices speaking. Just as she was beginning to consider turning around and finding some other detective to help her, the door opened once more.

The person standing there was definitely not the cool, hard-boiled Sokichi Narumi she'd heard so much about; it was a rather short woman with her hair in a ponytail. "This is the Narumi Detective Agency, but—"

"Where is Mr. Narumi?"

"He's, um... not here right now. I'm his daughter, but..."

"Then you can help me in his place," Noriko decided. She pushed her way into the office and retrieved a photograph from her purse. "This is Noodle. She's been missing for two days, you see. It's very unlike her to just up and run off! I suspect foul play."

Ms. Narumi took the picture and scrutinized it. "...this is a snake." A mostly-white snake with a mottled brown pattern. Cute, but still a snake.

"That's right! That's why time is of the essence. In this weather..."

"I'm sorry, but—"

Noriko bit her tongue and counted to three. "Obviously I'll compensate you for your time."

Ms. Narumi's eyes lit up. "Oh, really? Well, I don't know the standard rate for missing pet cases off the top of my head, but—"

"Five thousand yen up front, five thousand more when you find her, and an additional daily rate of five thousand," Noriko suggested. "How does that sound?"

She could practically hear a cash register go off in Ms. Narumi's brain. "You got yourself a deal, lady! Wait here, I just need to get something to write with... Okay, what's your name and how do I get in touch with you?"

As she followed Ms. Narumi to the desk in the back of the office, Noriko was sure she could see an eerie, glowing green light through the crack in the bathroom door.

* * *

Akiko was all smiles for the first time since this whole mess had started. She gazed lovingly at the photo of Noodle that Ms. Sugiyama had left behind. Noodle the snake—more like Noodle the walking bag of gold.

The door to the bathroom opened and Wakana stepped out. "Tch."

"What?"

"Your priorities are so obvious." Wakana plopped down into the chair behind the desk and spun around once. "Taking a case just for the money when you have no training as a detective? You'd sell me back to the organization for the right price."

Akiko's face turned red. "Those are two different things! And besides, I thought you wanted to stay there anyway!"

Wakana shrugged. "I don't have anywhere else to go. Maybe I should go back."

Akiko sighed in exasperation. "Don't be so hasty. I mean, I won't stop you if you want to, but..."

"Good. But I don't want to."

"What _do_ you want?"

Wakana was silent. She was silent for so long that Akiko started to feel awkward about it.

"Hey, help me find this snake. Can you look that up in your whatever-Library?"

Wakana rolled her eyes. "I can, but that's stupid. Find it yourself."

Akiko's cheeks puffed up. "Fine, I will!" She grabbed a notebook off of her father's desk and marched toward the door.

This kind of _was_ stupid, but now that she'd taken the case she couldn't back down. The reputation of Sokichi Narumi was on the line. After Akiko found Noodle she would close down the agency. It was only right.

* * *

Finding a lost snake was harder than Akiko had thought it would be.

The first tactic she tried was asking around in the owner's neighborhood. After several people looked at her like she was crazy, one little girl mentioned having seen Noodle slithering northward. But there were no leads beyond that.

Akiko stood at an intersection, leaning against a street sign, and sighed to herself. What had she gotten herself into? Who even looked for missing snakes?

"Merry Christmas!"

Akiko flinched as a small paper bag was thrust into her face. She took the bag and blinked in confusion at the man who'd handed it to her. He was older than middle-aged, dressed in a Santa Claus suit save for shorts that showed off his legs—which would have made sense in summer, but this was December.

Wait, no... today was _actually_ Christmas, Akiko realized. With everything that had happened in the past day she'd almost forgotten.

"You're new in town, aren't you?" Santa said. "Consider this a welcoming gift!"

Akiko raised an eyebrow. "Not a Christmas present?" She finally opened up the bag and looked inside. There was a pinwheel with rainbow-colored spokes, a deck of playing cards, and a pen with a little pinwheel-headed cartoon character printed on it.

Santa laughed. "Just call me Fuuto City's year-round Santa-chan. Day in and day out I scour these streets in search of anyone in need of a present."

At that statement, a light bulb flicked on in Akiko's head. He'd even been able to recognize her as an outsider, which meant... "You get around a lot, right? So if I needed some information..."

With a conspiratorial chuckle, Santa held out his hand and rubbed his fingers together. "I _just might_ be able to help you out, Miss...?"

"Narumi," she answered as she dug in her messenger bag. "Akiko Narumi. Ah, here." She retrieved the object she was looking for, a green house slipper, and used it to slap Santa's hand away. "Don't you think I should get some kind of newbie special? First time free?"

"Oh, you're _good_ ," Santa groaned. He cradled his wounded hand. "Wait, Narumi? Do you know Sokichi Narumi?"

"He—he's my dad." Akiko knew she'd have to report what happened eventually, but right now if she even started to think about it she knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. Before Santa could ask, she pulled out the photograph of Noodle. "Have you seen this snake?"

"Ahhh, little Noodle!" Santa exclaimed. "Just last week Miss Noriko came out with him draped over her shoulders like a boa. He's such a cutie-pie!"

 _Little_ Noodle. A _cutie-pie_. _Draped over her shoulders like a boa_? Akiko wrinkled her nose.

"You mean have I seen him since he's gone missing, though, right? No, I haven't. But I _have_ seen something else verrrrry interesting." Santa grinned.

Akiko tilted her head. Santa held his hand out again.

"Jeez!" She slapped him upside the head with the slipper, then dropped two 100-yen coins into his hand.

"Is that any way to treat a valuable informant?!" Still, Santa pocketed the coins. "Fine, fine, I'll consider it a welcoming-committee discount. Anyway, I've seen a lot of _other_ snakes headed in the direction of Windy Park."

"What?"

"Like they're gathering for a snake convention! Ooh, wouldn't that be something?"

Akiko shuddered.

"But they only move at night," Santa went on. "The park is closed after sunset, so nobody knows what goes on there after dark!" He waved his hands as if to say _Ooh, spooky!_

"I see..." Akiko managed a grin. "Thanks for the information! I guess I'll head there after dark, then..."

Santa saluted her. "I'm looking forward to working with you in the future, Miss Narumi! Your father has always been one of my best-paying supplicants."

"Heh... right."

She started back toward the Narumi Detective Agency. She had to prepare. No, she needed a _nap_.

* * *

The office was empty when Akiko returned.

Her first instinct was to panic. But she gathered her composure enough to shut the door behind herself before she called out Wakana's name.

There was no response. But with another look around, Akiko realized something was amiss. A door set into the left wall was open. She hadn't even realized that _was_ a door.

She peeked inside. "Wakana?" Akiko walked down the yellow spiral staircase and took in her surroundings. Was this... a garage? There was a metal grate-like walkway above her, dry-erase whiteboards lining both the near and far wall, and... some kind of huge tank? Her dad had a _tank_?

At least now she knew where Wakana was—standing in front of that tank, peering at it curiously.

"Whoa." Akiko stared at the tank. "What is this thing?"

"Rotation-Interchange Base SkullGarry," Wakana replied. "I've already processed a lookup on the model. The strange thing is, I can't access any information on the person who designed it."

"Eh? Really?"

"There's some sort of block in place. The same thing happens when I try to look up the organization I was... with."

Akiko was impressed that Wakana had apparently been doing that much reading while she was gone. "I see..."

Wakana folded her arms and stomped her foot. "It's so dumb!"

"But you _could_ look this SkullGarry thing up?"

"Yeah... You can drive your father's motorcycle into here and change the back out for other parts. Don't you remember? It's how I switched the ski part out for the bike part last night."

"You did?" Akiko's memory of the night before was, admittedly, a little shot. She remembered fighting off several Dopants. She remembered getting caught in some kind of basement and their transformation breaking apart. And then they'd transformed again, but this time _she'd_ been the one to pass out. And she didn't remember much after that besides a whole lot of blood. When she came to, she was on the back of her dad's motorcycle with Wakana driving. But she did seem to remember some kind of giant skull face. "Ugh, thinking about all that just makes my head hurt."

"Of course it does. You _do_ have a lesser intellect," Wakana replied in a sing-song tone.

"What the heck?!"

Wakana stepped lightly toward the stairs. "I mean, you can't _help_ it. Maybe you're perfectly average for people who aren't me." She shrugged.

"Weren't you just talking about how you can't even look up whoever made this tank?"

"Oh, and you _can_?"

Akiko huffed. She darted ahead of Wakana and ran up the stairs before she could. Wakana cocked her head.

"A-anyway!" Akiko exclaimed. "I need to find some cheap hotel so I can take a nap before tonight."

"There's a couch in there." Wakana nodded behind herself.

"Oh." She stepped back onto the stairway, which was a mistake. By the time she was halfway back down she had to find a way to maneuver around Wakana.

"Eek—watch where you're going!" Wakana exclaimed. She shoved at Akiko and pushed past her, nearly sending her tumbling over the railing. It was just sheer luck that Akiko was able to find her balance in time.

"That should be my line!" Akiko shot back.

Wakana huffed. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and stormed out into the office.

Under any other circumstances, Akiko would have followed her and given her a piece of her mind. But right now, she really needed some sleep. The lecture could wait.

* * *

After a few hours' sleep Akiko was ready. She took a quick shower, armed herself with her trusty messenger bag, and headed for Windy Park.

Windy this, windy that. Akiko could swear that every place of note in Fuuto had _wind_ or _kaze_ somewhere in its name. Not that it wasn't warranted, she admitted, shivering. Her light jacket wasn't enough for this city's winter.

"Heeeere, Noodle," Akiko called softly as she tiptoed through the wooded park. Her hair was blown askew by another gust of wind, this time accompanied by a melody of some sort.

Wind chimes?

No, it sounded more like... a flute.

Akiko froze in her tracks and strained her ears. She couldn't accurately gauge the distance of the music, not in this wind. But she thought she could tell the direction it was coming from. She turned and inched that way, ears perked.

The melody grew more intense, and so did the rustling of the leaves on the ground. But they weren't being moved by just the wind, Akiko realized when she looked down. Moving through the leaves like waves through a lake's surface... were snakes. Dozens of snakes.

Akiko shrieked.

The music stopped. And at the same time, the snakes stopped moving forward. Many of them remained where they were, but some turned to slither off in another direction.

A low, gruff voice called out, "Who's there?!"

"Eep!" Akiko pressed herself against the backside of a tree and covered her mouth.

A long moment passed. Finally the music started playing again—a different tune this time, more hectic. Something wrapped around Akiko's ankle and dragged her, screaming bloody murder, out from her hiding place. She grabbed at the ground, but nothing could stop the snakes.

Yes, they were snakes. A snake had grabbed her and a bunch of other snakes had grabbed that one and they were pulling her like some kind of horrible living rope.

The snakes dumped her on the ground in front of a bulky brown Dopant. It was sitting cross-legged with a basket of some kind in front of it, holding a flute-like instrument in its hands, and appeared to be wearing a turban on its head.

"Wow, talk about your tacky stereotypes," Akiko muttered as she pushed herself to her feet. "Are you the one who kidnapped Noodle?"

The Dopant barked out a laugh. "Such a ridiculous name for one of nature's most majestic creatures! Once I've liberated the snakes of Fuuto—"

"Oh my _god_. What kind of stupid evil plan is that?!" Akiko dug in her messenger bag. She was in luck. In her post-transformation fugue the night before, she'd apparently stuffed the Driver in there. This whole business was really weird, but she couldn't think of another way out of this situation.

The Dopant gasped when she set the Driver around her waist.

He wasn't the only one to react in shock. She could also hear Wakana's thoughts reverberating in her mind. _"What do you think you're doing?!"_

"There's a Dopant! Um, can you hear me? Eek!" A huge snake lunged at Akiko. She barely managed to dodge aside in time. She tossed her messenger bag away after grabbing one of her Gaia Memories out of it.

 _"There's no way I'm doing that again! Take it off!"_

"I'll die if I do that! Just help me out, okay?!"

She felt Wakana's growl of frustration. After a moment, the Claydoll Memory appeared in Akiko's Driver. She pushed it down and shoved in the Memory she'd grabbed.

 _ **MUSIC!**_

"Eh? Not Diamond?" Well, it was too late now.

 _ **CLAYDOLL! MUSIC!**_ A slightly different tune emanated from the Driver. The armor surrounding Akiko's body was different this time: The same beige and maroon on the right, and a soft purple with white trim on the left. There was a bow shaped like a harp in Akiko's left hand and a quiver full of arrows strapped to her back.

"This is different..." she muttered.

The Dopant played a tune on its flute and a hoard of snakes lunged at them. Akiko tried to dodge to the left and Wakana tried to dodge to the right. The snakes hit them head-on and sent them reeling backward. From out of nowhere, Akiko could hear a discordant sound like somebody tangling up a harp's strings.

 _"What are you doing?!"_

"I'm trying to fight! Quit messing me up!"

 _"You're the one messing up!"_

The Dopant laughed. "Are you supposed to be threatening? Go get them, my babies!" It played another tune and the snakes formed themselves into the shape of a fist.

 _"Argh...!"_ Wakana lifted their right hand and flung a ball of energy at the fist. The snakes dispersed.

"Don't hurt them!" Akiko exclaimed. "Noodle could be in there!"

 _"Tch! They're attacking us, you idiot."_

"But—"

The Dopant played the same tune as before. This time, both Akiko and Wakana knew that that meant and were able to dodge out of the way before they could be hit.

"Lemme try this out," Akiko said. It was strange; she didn't know the first thing about archery, but she somehow seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she drew an arrow from her quiver. She pulled the Music Memory out of her Driver, jammed it into a slot on the back of the arrow, and took aim. A sound like a chord being played on a harp came from the bow, and the arrow began to glow with the same energy Wakana used in Claydoll's blasts.

 _ **MUSIC! MAXIMUM DRIVE!**_

Akiko and Wakana shouted wordlessly in unison as the arrow fired. It struck the Dopant in the chest and exploded, sending a number of snakes flying.

"Ughhhh!" The two-in-one warrior cringed. Akiko shrieked when a snake landed right on her, but she managed to get a good look at it before she could fling it away. "Noodle! There you are!"

Without a word, Wakana undid their transformation, leaving Akiko alone in the middle of a field full of snakes. She allowed Noodle to loop around the back of her shoulders as she tiptoed toward the fallen Dopant.

He was just a person, now. A middle-aged man lying unconscious and twitching. The shattered pieces of a Gaia Memory lay beside him—the label bearing a snake shaped into the letter C and the word "CHARMER" visible.

"This case is closed," Akiko said to herself with a proud nod. "Let's get you home, Noodle."

* * *

Saeko Sonozaki stood in her office, flipping through the report that had been handed her.

"Setbacks due to the loss of... _that_ asset are inevitable," stated the flimsy-looking researcher. His voice wavered. "But we're making up for them as best we can. And as you can see, the black market research shouldn't be affected at all."

Saeko paused on one page. "What's this one? 'Charmer'?"

The researcher cringed. "Ah, well... I assure you, Miss Sonozaki, that purchaser appears to be an outlier. The Memory is working as predicted, but..."

"But it was sold to an idiot. That's not your fault. Fetch that new salesman for me on your way out, would you?"

"Of course, Miss Sonozaki, of course." The researcher nodded and scurried for the door.

Saeko flipped the report shut and slammed it down onto her desk. _Imbeciles_. Every single _one_ of them.

* * *

After returning Noodle to the home of Noriko Sugiyama, Akiko reflected that she could have squeezed an extra day's fee out of her by waiting until morning. The snake had been surprisingly friendly.

Ah, well. Lesson learned.

There was more pep in her gait than there had been before when she entered the Narumi Detective Agency. "I'm back~" she called out. "Nice job out there, Wakana! We really kicked that guy's butt!"

Wakana was leafing through a book she'd plucked off of the bookshelf. A real, physical book. She looked up when Akiko called her name and clicked her tongue against her teeth. "I'm not doing that again."

"Eh?"

"I mean it." She set the book down and placed her hands on her hips. " _Never._ It's disgusting, just—being in your body! Having you rifle through my thoughts like that!"

"But I wasn't—"

"You _could_ have!"

"But I didn't!" Akiko strode across the room. Wakana turned away from her with a huff. "I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out. If it wasn't for you I couldn't have wrapped up that case."

Wakana eyed Akiko warily. "Is that really all?"

"Well, it _was_." Akiko chewed on her lower lip. "The thing is, I don't really understand what's going on here. But my dad obviously knew a lot about it, so I... I want to get to the bottom of this. I want to know what the heck all these Dopant things are doing and why. But that means I might have to fight them again."

"You can fight them on your own." To emphasize her point, Wakana slapped the Claydoll Memory down onto the desk. "Find another Driver if you have to—one that _doesn't_ use me as spare parts."

Akiko threw her hands up in exasperation. "It's not like I'm forcing you or anything! I just—"

"Oh, you're not? Good." Wakana stepped around Akiko.

"Where are you—"

"Earlier you said I didn't have to stay here. I'm taking you up on that." She stopped at the door with her hand on the knob. "You can fight all the Dopants you want without me."

"Wakana!"

Wakana had a point, though. It wasn't up to Akiko whether she stayed or went. All Akiko could do was stand there and watch helplessly as the girl in the white nightgown disappeared into the night.


	3. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

**The Sum of Our Parts / She Wore a Yellow Ribbon**

Akiko couldn't sleep.

She laid on the couch in the garage staring up into the darkness. She usually didn't have this problem. Sure, her thoughts were always a mile a minute, but she generally had no trouble shutting them off and getting to sleep.

The events of the past two days were _totally_ harshing her happy-go-lucky image.

She could hear doors opening. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Artificial light began to stream through the huge mechanical doors on the lower level of the garage.

"...Wakana?" Akiko called out cautiously.

But the figure that stepped through was not Wakana.

Akiko pushed herself to her feet and rubbed at her eyes. Maybe it was just the light streaming through the doorway the figure had entered through, but she found she couldn't make her eyes focus properly.

With quick, self-assured steps, the figure ascended the stairs. It stood atop the grating to stand before Akiko. Now she could see that this person was a woman—or so it appeared from her body shape and her long hair—quite a bit taller than Akiko was. She wore a long, black trenchcoat and a huge black hat, and her face and hands were entirely wrapped in bandages.

"Where is she," the woman demanded in a husky voice.

"Eh? Lady, how did you get in here? What time even is it? You woke me—"

" _Where_ is _Wakana_?"

Akiko shut her mouth.

The woman balled her fists at her sides. Even though Akiko couldn't see her face, she could feel the rage emanating from the woman in waves. "This is unacceptable! How could something like this have happened?!"

"Are you... are you the client who hired my dad?" Akiko asked hesitantly. What a weirdo.

The woman huffed. She turned and her heels clacked on the grating as she walked back toward the steps.

"Hey, wait!" Akiko rushed after her. "Where are you—"

"To find Wakana."

"Why?"

The woman stopped. "What?" she asked incredulously.

Akiko folded her arms over her chest. "She has a right to go where she wants!" Even if Akiko _was_ worried about her. "Isn't that why you hired my dad to get her out of that place? So she could be free?"

"You understand nothing."

"It would be a lot easier to understand things if people would tell me what's going _on_ here!"

The bandaged woman glowered at Akiko for a long moment. Pure judgment radiated off of her. "Leave this city, Akiko Narumi. You are not worthy of your father's office or of the Double Driver."

Was that what that transformation thing was called? Its full name? That made sense, she figured.

"It's not like I'm using the Driver anymore, but sorry, lady, I'm staying in this office. I'm going to figure out what Museum wants and how to stop them."

"This is too dangerous for you." The woman stepped down the stairs again and toward the doors she had entered through. "Return to Osaka."

"Wait, how did you know—"

The woman stepped through the doorway and pulled out a remote control. It shut behind her, leaving Akiko in darkness—in more ways than one.

* * *

From her various lookups over the years Wakana knew that there was such a thing as "the sun" that was supposed to make the sky bright. But both times she'd ventured into the outside world, it had been dark. So, this was "nighttime".

And in addition to being dark, it was also cold. Wakana wrapped her arms around herself and ducked into an alley to get away from the harsh wind.

She needed better clothing. That or a place to stay. For a second she entertained the thought that perhaps she'd been too hasty in leaving the Narumi Detective Agency—but no, this was the right choice. She was her own person now, not the organization's tool and not Akiko Narumi's.

Wakana gritted her teeth. She was going to make her own decisions from now on.

Laughter and footsteps echoed off the walls as a crowd of people, about six or seven in all, walked into the alley. They all appeared to be about the same age as Wakana—perhaps younger. She couldn't say for sure. How old was she, anyway? They were talking and laughing raucously and carrying small metallic cyllinders in their hands. The person in the front of the group shook his can and pointed it at one of the walls. None of them noticed Wakana.

Until she called out, "Give me some of your clothes."

The noisy youths fell silent. The one pointing his... paint cyllinder? at the wall stopped what he was doing and raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"I'm cold," she said. "Give me some of your clothes. You have more than enough." All of them were wearing jackets with strange logos on them. It would be difficult to get them to part with their jeans or shoes, though. And she didn't need the dark glasses some of them were wearing. Who wore dark glasses in the middle of the night? Morons.

They all laughed. Wakana was sure that laughter was a sign of amusement, a friendly gesture, but it sounded menacing somehow coming from them.

"Weirdo," called a girl toward the back of the crowd. She had bright pink hair and sharp-looking pointed jewelry stuck through the cartilage of her ears. "Forgot to get dressed so you want us to help?"

"Probably a hobo," someone else said.

"Nah, she's got this stuck-up prissy girl vibe," the pink-haired girl said. "Go ask your mommy and daddy for an advance on your allowance and buy some preppy Windscale shit."

"Mommy and... daddy?" Wakana repeated. The rest of the girl's admonishment went in one ear and out the other. Those two words stuck in her head, though, echoing through her mind like a test subject she remembered from about a year ago. The Bounce Memory had turned a man into a ball-shaped Dopant with an abnormally high deflective efficiency. The Dopant had bounced off the walls for nearly ten minutes before a higher-up officer managed to stop him with a Memory Break.

"Hey, look at her." One of the group laughed. "She's freaking out!"

Wakana twisted her fingers into her hair. She was staring blankly forward, but she wasn't looking at anything real. In her mind's eye she could see two figures. A man and a woman. They were so, so tall and so, so warm. They were speaking to her, but she couldn't hear their words.

The woman's lips formed into the shape of a word that might have been _Wakana_.

She was in the Library, now, and a search was processing itself without her help. The keywords popped up in front of her in bright green.

 _Mommy._

 _Daddy._

 _Family._

Too many results. The existence of a family was intrinsic to human nature, after all. Everyone had one—every single person had come from the union of two parents. Most people had siblings. Many adults had procreated. This search was useless.

 _Mine._

 _My family._

She still wasn't in control of the lookup, but it modified itself according to her thoughts anyway. The shelves pushed themselves aside as one single book flew toward her. She yanked it out of the air and opened it, but there was nothing. The pages had been haphazardly torn out.

Wakana screamed. She flung herself at the crowd of delinquents, who decided that now was a good moment to scram. Someone threw their jacket at her face, sending her stumbling backward and giving them time to make their escape.

She collapsed to the ground, where she curled up into a ball and shivered.

A phrase played itself through her mind over and over: _I want to go home._

But what did that _mean?_

* * *

Going to school in December was a drag. At this time of year the sun set only a little after four PM, leaving almost no time for after-school shenanigans on the weekdays.

Elizabeth and Queen were often tempted to skip, but they knew they couldn't. How were they supposed to keep up on the latest gossip from the hallways of Aorifuki High School if they were playing hooky?

They were discussing the antics of some boy or another as they walked along Central Boulevard. They wouldn't remember later—what mattered was what they found when they turned to cut through the alley to Tsujikaze Avenue.

A girl, probably in her late teens, lay curled up on the ground. Dressed in a dirty, tattered nightgown, she clutched a leather jacket tight around herself. The back of the jacket bore the logo of the Derechos, a small-time gang from this neighborhood.

Elizabeth gasped. Queen instantly knelt beside the girl and shook her shoulder. "Hey, hey, lady, are you okay?!"

The girl moaned.

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

Queen looked up at her BFF. "We have to get her somewhere warm."

Elizabeth nodded. She crouched down, and together the two of them helped the girl to her feet, looping her arms over each of their shoulders.

Today was one of those days when playing hooky was acceptable.

* * *

Akiko stood outside Kamome Billiards, looking up at the building. To think, just a day ago she'd been planning to shut the detective agency down. But now she knew she couldn't; she had a mystery to solve.

For her father.

For Wakana.

For her own curiosity, damn it.

She locked the side door to the agency and adjusted her messenger bag strap. She didn't know exactly what being a detective consisted of, but it couldn't hurt to get to know the neighborhood.

Within walking distance she found a barber shop, a little ice cream parlor, and a shrine where she briefly stopped to pray. A cat walked by as she walked down the sidewalk and she stopped to stroke it. She found a ramen stand with some _really_ delicious ramen.

This Fuuto place wasn't so bad.

By the time she stepped off a bus in downtown Fuuto, the sun was straight overhead. She walked by a bank and it hit her that she'd have to manage the agency's funds somehow. She wondered where her father had done his banking.

Akiko wandered through a plaza and sat down beside a fountain to retie her shoelaces. When she looked up she saw three girls wandering by across the street, all of them in high school uniforms and carrying shopping bags. The two shorter ones were pretty enough, but the third one, the oldest, was so beautiful it took Akiko's breath away.

She blinked and then looked again.

 _Wait a second...!_

* * *

Elizabeth's parents had gone to work, so the two friends had taken the girl to her apartment to get her warmed up. After a shower and a nap, the girl introduced herself as Wakana and asked them for some clothes.

They gave her an extra Aorifuki uniform. The top was a little too tight and the skirt was a little too short, but it would do until they enacted phase two of their plan: Total Makeover. Underneath that rat's nest hair and her pale skin there was something beautiful, and it was up to Queen and Elizabeth to bring that beauty to the surface.

Wakana stared, awed, into Elizabeth's vanity mirror. "Is that me...?" Her skin was flawless, her lips an impossible shade of pink—or at least impossible to someone who had thus far never encountered makeup. To the untrained eye, she may as well have been a different person.

"Uh-huh! You look great!" Elizabeth said, clasping her hands together.

"Now for phase two," said Queen. "Because there's no way we're making it to school on time after this _anyway_... Shopping trip!"

"Yay!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Shopping...?"

Shopping was incredible. There were so many things in this world Wakana had never _dreamed_ of, and she could just put them into a basket and take them with her. Queen and Elizabeth steered her away from clothes, jewelry, and makeup they deemed too "ostentatious" or "expensive" (whatever that meant) or that they determined didn't suit her, but she was too busy trying things on and laughing with glee to really care.

She felt like she was walking on air as she followed the two younger girls through Zephyr Plaza, her arms looped through the handles of countless bags. She grinned up at the sky—such a vibrant shade of blue she had never seen before.

" _You_ ," a voice sneered, and she stopped. That light feeling gave way to confusion.

Standing in front of the three girls was the leader of the crowd she'd run into last night. He was no longer wearing his jacket. "You," he repeated. "Give me back my jacket, you little freak. I didn't give Kinji permission to throw it at you!"

Queen and Elizabeth swallowed. "What happened, Wakana?" Queen asked.

"What happened?" Elizabeth repeated.

Wakana tilted her head. "Why didn't this Kinji person throw his own jacket...?"

"Hell if I know!" the guy raged. "Just give it back!"

"I don't have it right now," she said simply.

Queen and Elizabeth stared at Wakana in disbelief. She could tell they were intimidated, but she didn't see any reason for it. She just stared the guy down, largely unimpressed.

The guy's face twisted into a snarl. He reached into his pants pocket and retrieved a Gaia Memory. "You gonna give me back my jacket, or you gonna say your prayers?"

Queen and Elizabeth shrieked. Wakana's eyes went wide and she stepped backward as the guy hit the button on his Memory— _ **APE!**_ —and transformed into a hulking, hairy beast. He lunged and the two high-schoolers pulled Wakana out of the way.

Before he could round on the girls, he found someone else standing in front of him.

Akiko Narumi gripped her messenger bag so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her ponytail whipped around in the wind. "W-Wakana, are you okay?!"

Wakana nodded frantically.

The Dopant growled and swung a fist at Akiko, knocking her aside. Wakana tried to rush over to her, but Queen and Elizabeth held her back.

"Ugh..." Akiko had landed on something lumpy in her bag. She rubbed her side as she got back up. Then she blinked and looked down at her bag. "Wait, no way. I still have...?"

"Akiko?!" Wakana called.

"Wakana!" She reached into her bag, dancing around another attack from the Dopant, and pulled out the Double Driver. "I still have this thing, but if you want to run away then—"

Wakana swallowed. Behind her, Queen and Elizabeth were frozen in place, clinging to each of her arms. And all around them people were running and screaming—some of them other shoppers or employees Wakana had seen in the stores they'd been to. They were...

...they were all nice people.

And Akiko was giving her a _choice_. Even though Wakana was the one who had created that wretched Dopant, even though it was her specifically he was after.

"I don't have Claydoll," she called. "Throw me the blue one!"

Akiko fumbled in her bag for a dark blue Gaia Memory and threw it over to Wakana. When Wakana's half of the Driver appeared around her waist, she activated the Memory and shoved it in. _**STAR!**_

 _ **DIAMOND!**_

Wakana's consciousness flowed out of her body. She fell backward into the arms of Queen and Elizabeth, who had no idea what to do. They just crouched there, watching as armor formed around Akiko's body—cyan and white on the left, dark blue and yellow on the right.

 _ **STAR! DIAMOND!**_

Akiko looked down at her—at _their_ hands. "Nice! I like this one!"

 _"Look out, dumbass!"_

They barely managed to dance away from one of Ape's blows. Akiko swung her leg up and landed a diamond-hard kick against Ape's side, sending him stumbling away. When he turned and bellowed in rage, Wakana waved her hand and a bright light filled the plaza. For a second, none of them could see.

"My eyes!" Ape cried. Even once the light died down, he could only stumble around half-blind. He was in no state to resist as Akiko punched him in the face.

"Hey, hey, I wanna try something," Akiko said suddenly. They fell back, and she pulled out a different Memory, a pink one.

 _"But we have him right where we want him,"_ Wakana protested.

"I want to try this one out, okay?" She pulled Diamond out of the Driver and replaced it. _**RIBBON!**_

 _"I really don't get the point of this."_

 _ **STAR! RIBBON!**_ Akiko's cyan left half gave way to pink. The trim was a light cream. In her hand, Akiko held a long whip-like ribbon. She would have grinned if a helmet weren't covering her face.

Ape's blindness wore off and he came charging again. Akiko flung the whip wildly, knocking over a pillar before it connected with Ape with a sparkling glow of light. She twirled to one side, spinning the ribbon in the air over their head, and struck again with another glow.

"Oh my god," Queen gasped. "She's like one of those old-school dolls! The ones from like twenty years ago!"

"You nerd," Elizabeth teased her.

 _"C'mon, quit playing around."_ Wakana pulled the Ribbon Memory out of Akiko's side of the Driver and jammed it into a port in the whip's handle. _**RIBBON! MAXIMUM DRIVE!**_

Their body spun again and this time it didn't stop. They spun faster and faster, the ribbon twirling around their body as they lifted into the air. Queen and Elizabeth clung to Wakana's body, shrieking as the ensuing wind whipped away some of their shopping bags.

"Hyaa!" Akiko and Wakana cried simultaneously. They whipped the ribbon at Ape, straight through his body. He sparked profusely until a bright glowing light enveloped him and he exploded.

They landed on the ground. They dusted their knees off and approached the former Dopant, now just a young punk lying next to a shattered Gaia Memory.

"Nice job," Akiko beamed.

Wakana hesitated. Finally, she replied, _"You too."_

* * *

The former Ape Dopant, Tsujiro Shiroyuki, was taken away by the police in handcuffs.

"He's a drug dealer," explained the cop overseeing the scene, a middle-aged man with a plastic back-scratcher slung over his shoulder. "That's probably why he was so eager to get his jacket back. He must have left some of his product inside."

 _"A drug dealer?"_ Wakana's hand stroked Akiko's chin curiously. _"What does—"_

Akiko interrupted her right half with a nervous laugh. "Glad we could be of service to you, officer!" She saluted him eagerly.

"Who are you, anyway?" He pointed his back-scratcher at them menacingly.

"Us? We're, um..." Akiko slammed her fist into her palm with a sudden burst of inspiration. "You can call us Double!"

 _"Are you serious? That's so—"_

"Okay, Double. I'm gonna need you to come down to the station and fill out some—"

"Oops, sorry! We gotta go!" Akiko exclaimed. "A superhero's work is never done. Up, up, and away!"

But they couldn't fly, so they settled for turning and running.

Once they'd rounded a corner to the back side of a store, Akiko undid the transformation and shoved the Driver back into her bag. Queen and Elizabeth were waiting there with Wakana, who began to stir.

"That—"

"Was—"

"Incredible!" both high-schoolers concluded together.

"How did you do that?" Queen asked.

"Yes, how?"

Akiko laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "It's kind of a long story..."

Wakana got to her feet and began to gather up her shopping bags. "Let's go," she said to Akiko. "You two, help me carry these."

"Go?" Akiko repeated.

"Back to the Narumi Detective Agency. I don't have anywhere else to keep this stuff," Wakana replied haughtily.

"Eh? You mean—"

Wakana nodded. "I... I have nowhere else to go, Akiko. And it's true that you're the first person who's ever..." She didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't have to. "Besides..." She glanced sidelong at Queen and Elizabeth. She'd thought she didn't care what happened to the people of this city, but they had gone out of their way to help her. And to what end? They could have been killed. "This is partially my responsibility."

Queen and Elizabeth tilted their heads toward each other. "Eh?"

Akiko smiled affirmatively. "All right. I'm looking forward to working with you, Wakana." She stuck her hand out, but Wakana just stared at it in confusion. "Oh, for crying out— Let's just head back."

The four girls started off in the direction of the nearest bus stop.

* * *

"Eh?! Dad's bike is gone!" Akiko was _sure_ it had been parked in front of the agency when she'd left.

She rushed inside to make sure nothing else had been harmed. Wakana, Queen, and Elizabeth followed, dumping their shopping bags on the floor in the office. The office proper seemed just fine, but Akiko immediately opened the side door and descended into the garage.

The SkullGarry had been remodeled. Instead of a giant skull, its front more closely resembled Double's face—beige on the right, cyan on the left, with two silver antennae extending upward.

Wakana ascended the grating and retrieved an object that was lying on the desk against one wall—a cell phone of some sort. She flipped it open and pressed some buttons on it, and the former SkullGarry—the DoubleGarry?—began to open up.

Queen and Elizabeth stepped backward in shock. Akiko stepped forward.

"So the base functionality remains the same..." Wakana mused.

Inside the remodeled tank was a bike that resembled Sokichi's in form, but the coloration differed. The front half was cyan and white, the back beige and maroon.

"Where did this _come_ from?!" Akiko shrieked.

Wakana closed her eyes. A soft green glow emanated from her body, but after only a second she stumbled backward. She scowled. "Don't ask me."

* * *

Hearing the commotion in the hangar, the bandaged woman turned away from the double doors and made her way through the tunnels that led away from the Narumi Detective Agency.

If this was what Wakana wanted... Shroud supposed she could indulge her for now. She would be no better than Museum if she forced her will on the girl, after all. But if the Double Driver was to be used in this fashion, it would have to be divorced from Skull's image.

Akiko Narumi was nothing like her father.


	4. Rising Star

**The Sum of Our Parts / Rising Star**

Shotaro Hidari stood at the front gate of the Sonozaki mansion. He took a deep breath, smoothed his hair back, and adjusted the lapels of his suit jacket. God, this thing itched.

There was something about this place that freaked Shotaro out. It wasn't even the bourgeois fanciness, though that certainly didn't help when he'd spent the bulk of his high school years doing without. There was just some kind of... _vibe_ that emanated from the mansion.

He gulped. His hand shook as he reached toward the buzzer.

The intercom turned on before he could even press the button. "Shotaro?" came a bright, chipper voice.

He relaxed slightly. "H-hey there. I made it."

"Good." He could practically hear the beaming smile on the other side of the intercom. "My father has been eager to meet you ever since we started dating. And now that Saeko has agreed to hire you..."

Yeah. Shotaro figured it was inevitable. "So can I come in, or what?"

"Of course," said Raito. "I'll be waiting in the lobby."

The gate opened up. The April breeze ruffled Shotaro's hair, soothing him somewhat.

A good wind blew through Fuuto.

* * *

Akiko threw open the window by the desk in the back of the office to let the fresh spring air in.

Fuuto's wind really was nice. Akiko wasn't sure she agreed with the propaganda about it being better than any other city's, but it was, admittedly, refreshing.

She plopped down into the chair behind the desk and gazed upon the office. She'd gotten pretty comfortable here. Being a detective and a superhero—or one half of each, anyway—felt surprisingly natural. In the past three and a half months Akiko and Wakana had fought several Dopants and broken their Gaia Memories, but at Wakana's estimation there could be _hundreds_ more in Fuuto.

Akiko had never heard about any of this back in Osaka. Why hadn't it been on the news?

At least they'd both gotten used to the city. They knew Fuuto like the back of their hands by now, although thanks to the Gaia Library Wakana had an advantage Akiko lacked.

Akiko still didn't _understand_ the Gaia Library, but she was glad it gave Wakana something to do.

Maybe a little _too_ many somethings. Wakana had gone through more hobbies and interests in the past five months than Akiko could count. It was always nice to have hobbies, but Wakana could get a little... intense.

The door to the garage, where Wakana's bedroom had been set up, opened. The amnesiac girl stepped through and headed toward the bathroom, pulling off her clothes and dropping them on the floor behind herself as she went.

Case in point.

Akiko shrieked. She got up and rushed after Wakana, gathering up her clothes. A headband here, a shirt there. She gingerly pinched Wakana's bra between her fingers. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Wakana didn't pause. She shimmied out of her ruffly skirt as she spoke a sentence in English: " _April showers bring May flowers_. Have you ever heard that, Akiko?"

"Eh?" Akiko grabbed the skirt before it could hit the floor.

" _Shigatsu no shawaazu wa gogatsu no hana wo motarasu_ ," she clarified. "If showering in April increases the chances of flowers blooming in May—"

Wait. No. "Doesn't _shower_ mean two different things? I think it can mean _rain_ , too." Akiko had actually paid decent attention in high school English class. English, after all, was the language of business.

Wakana tilted her head.

"Jeez, it means when it rains in April flowers bloom in May! You're so—"

The office door opened. Akiko shrieked and shoved Wakana through the bathroom door, tossed her clothes in after her, and pushed the door shut just as a man stepped into the office. "W-Welcome to the Narumi Detective Agency! How can I help you?"

"I've heard this office handles... unusual cases," the man said. "Is that true?"

The Narumi Detective Agency had had a reputation even before Akiko's takeover. This had brought some... interesting cases to her doorstep from the very get-go. But she had to make sure of the client's meaning. "What do you mean by 'unusual'?"

The man sighed. He sank into one of the chairs by the door. "I'm being harassed by a Gaia Memory user. I'm at my wit's end! I don't know where else to turn."

"Well, you've come to the right place!" Akiko rushed to the desk to grab the agency's ledger book, then took a seat across from the client. She glowered slightly when she heard the shower start running through the bathroom door. "We can definitely help. Why don't you tell me all about it, Mr...?"

"Enokida. Satoru Enokida."

Satoru Enokida was a small-business owner. Recently his store had been vandalized—first by egging and toilet paper, then by graffiti, then he'd found windows broken and merchandise stolen. His customers had been threatened by a Dopant as they entered the store. He'd even been followed on his way home.

"It started when I began negotiations to purchase land for expansion of my business," he explained. "All of a sudden I started getting threatening notes, and then... it escalated to this."

Akiko frowned. "Do you have any idea who the culprit could be?"

He shook his head. "But I've heard that you're acquainted with that... that masked hero who's been fighting these monsters recently. If that person could act as my bodyguard..."

Akiko winced. "Ah, that would definitely cut into our—into Double's time. It might be pricey..."

"I'll pay whatever fee you request," Enokida said quickly. "Whatever you think is fair."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Akiko smiled. "I _think_ we can work something out."

* * *

8:30 AM: Satoru Enokida left his apartment to head to work.

His business was a small jewelry store. It was rather isolated at 9 AM, when he unlocked the doors and flipped the _Closed_ sign to _Open_. That wasn't strange; not a lot of people would be out shopping for jewelry at this time of day.

Although Akiko had to wonder if there would have been customers if it weren't for that Dopant.

She sat outside a little cafe across the street from Hyoushoku Jewelry, sipping a latte and peering through the lenses of one of the bulky plastic Memory Gadgets she'd found in the office. This one was a weird little bat-shaped gizmo called Bat Shot, according to the manual Wakana had located in the Gaia Library. But just like with the SkullGarry—now called the RevolGarry, apparently (what was wrong with DoubleGarry? Akiko liked DoubleGarry)—Wakana had been unable to access any information on the maker of the Bat Shot and the other gadgets they'd found.

It was that lady in the bandages, right? It had to be. If Akiko had guessed right, then she was the client who'd wanted Wakana away from Museum, which meant she'd also given Sokichi the Skull Memory. Which _also_ meant she was good with Gaia Memories. Wakana's inability to look up Mummy Woman's true identity, the same way she couldn't look up the maker of the gadgets and RevolGarry, was just more corroborating evidence.

(This detective stuff was pretty easy.)

Akiko had been keeping watch for about an hour when a young man in a tailored suit headed into Enokida's shop. A customer, she assumed.

Until a display case went crashing through one of the front windows.

"The Dopant," she realized grimly. She abandoned her latte and grabbed the Double Driver. "Wakana, he's here!"

 _"Already? I was asleep..."_

"Here's another adage for you: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise!"

 _"But I'm a woman."_

As the Claydoll Memory appeared in Akiko's belt, she sighed. "It's English, okay? They think everyone's a man." She shoved the Memory down and stuck in Diamond before Wakana could respond.

Double leapt into action.

Enokida was cowering behind the counter of the store. There, threatening him, was a harlequin-like Dopant with black skin and neon purple lines running up and down its body. It seemed to be wearing a jester's hat, and on the back of each hand and on each ankle were printed the faces of dice, one per limb, each displaying a different number of dots.

"Hey, you!" Akiko called. "Back off!"

The Dopant turned away from Enokida and groaned. "Jeez... Don't get in my way here!"

Akiko placed her hand on her hip. "Back off and we won't have to. You've terrorized this man long enough!"

The Dopant made a sound of confusion. Before he could do anything, though, Double was on him, wailing with their fists. They knocked him into a display case, breaking the glass, and Enokida shouted.

"Oops— sorry!" Akiko called. "Let's take this outside!"

Double and the Dopant continued exchanging blows as they crashed through the other, yet-unbroken window. Akiko could hear a moan of dismay coming from Enokida. She realized that this was exactly why Double needed a secret identity. She couldn't afford to fix that!

Unfortunately, the Dopant was good with his punches, too. Double couldn't afford to stay on him like this. Wakana shot a blast of energy at him, giving them time to jump back and switch Memories.

 ** _CLAYDOLL! RIBBON!_**

"Ha ha!" Akiko laughed as she flung the ribbon-like whip at the Dopant. "Kneel! Call me queen! O ho ho ho ho!"

 _"What are you talking about?"_ Wakana demanded.

"Ugh!" The Dopant dodged a strike of the whip and rushed at Double with his head down. The die face on the back of his right hand appeared to spin. In an instant it went from showing a two to a six.

The punch that followed was more powerful than any the Dopant had landed thus far. Double went flying back, smashing against a tree.

The tree snapped in half. Double's armor broke away and faded, leaving Akiko sitting on the ground in a daze.

 _"Akiko? Akiko, are you okay?!"_

She was too dizzy to move. There was no way she could protect herself against another punch like that.

The Dopant stood there. Strangely enough, he seemed to be wavering.

Before he could advance on the un-transformed Akiko, someone else leapt into the fray.

It was an armored figure with a shape very similar to Double's, but taller and more masculine. This armor was blue with golden eyes, black gloves, and line designs running up and down its body that made Akiko think of South American iconography.

And he was holding a long black sword with a hilt designed in a similar motif to those lines.

He pulled a Gaia Memory—translucent like Double's, not ribbed like the kind Dopants used—from his belt and stuck it into the hilt of the sword. **_NASCA! MAXIMUM DRIVE!_**

The armored person swung his sword at the Dopant. The Dopant flew back, just in time to avoid being hit by a burst of energy. A nearby tree was felled, yielding an explosion.

The Dopant shouted in what sounded like outrage. "L-like I was gonna attack a middle school girl! Give me a break!"

Akiko pushed herself to her feet and waved a slipper in the air. "What was that?!"

The Dopant didn't bother apologizing. He just turned and booked it.

The Nasca guy sighed what sounded like a world-weary sigh. He turned around. His belt, like Sokichi's, had only one Memory slot. "Are you all right, miss?"

"I, uh... Yeah, sure. Where'd you get that?"

The man, his voice suave in a jerkass shoujo manga love interest sort of way, chuckled. "Does that matter? What matters is, I just saved you. Should a child like you really be out trying to fight crime?"

Akiko went rigid. "Who are you calling a child?! I'll have you know I'm nineteen years old!"

The man's eyebrows lifted. "Hm... older than I thought."

"What was that? First that Dopant and now you?! Who do you think you are?!"

"I'm Nasca. And you would be?"

"Double," Akiko shot back. "Me and my partner together have probably taken out tons more Dopants than you."

"It's true that I only recently received my Lost Driver," he admitted. "But I'd say I'm far more suited to the job than you."

"And why's that?"

"That, right there." Nasca gestured. "That accent—you're from Osaka, if I'm not mistaken."

Akiko's face twisted into a frown. This had better be relevant...

"Meanwhile, I've lived in Fuuto my entire life. There's no one better-suited to protecting this city than me."

Akiko groaned. "Jeez... You're such a pompous blowhard. Look, I have a job to do."

"I wouldn't dream of keeping you from it." Nasca bowed with a flourish. "And _I_ have a Dopant to track down. Adieu, my dear Double."

As Akiko stormed back toward Hyoushoku Jewelry, Wakana said with a sneer, _"Who does he think he is?"_

Finally they agreed on something, even if it was for different reasons. Akiko had a mystery to solve and Wakana had her countless sins to atone for; but either way, Fuuto was _their_ city.

Not his.


	5. Zero Sum

**The Sum of Our Parts / Zero Sum**

"Let me see. Keywords... Hyoushoku Jewelry. Harlequin. Dice." Wakana tapped her chin. "These keywords are pretty vague. Don't you have anything better to help me figure out the brand of the culprit's Memory?"

"You saw as much as I did!" Akiko's voice resounded from the real world outside Wakana's head. "It's not like we got his name or anything."

Wakana sighed. She idly tossed aside one book after another, none of them promising. "Are you _sure_ you didn't see anything of interest before we transformed?"

"Of course not!"

There was a pause. By now, Wakana knew to interpret that pause as Akiko coming to a realization.

"...well, I _did_ see a guy in a suit walk into the shop."

"What sort of suit?"

"You know, black? Tailor-made? I figured he was a businessman. No one else went in all morning, and that guy wasn't there when we busted in, so... he must've been the Dopant!"

That was more like it. But... "That's too generic. A businessman? How is that supposed to—" But even as she scoffed, the word **BUSINESSMAN** appeared in green print before her. The shelves shifted around again, revealing a single book. The word _NAME_ was emblazoned on the front and spine.

"Well?" Wakana could hear the smug grin in Akiko's voice.

"I guess that was helpful after all." Even so, Wakana clicked her tongue against her teeth. She opened the book.

* * *

Even with the hiring bonus from his job at Digal Corp., Shotaro still hadn't had the chance to upgrade from his small, bug-ridden apartment. He'd lived here since partway through high school, and while the landlord was nice enough to let him slide during the months when he couldn't make ends meet, that meant he owed a _lot_ in back rent.

But once that was taken care of, he'd have some moving up in the world to do. He'd get a nicer place, he'd eat meals that didn't consist of instant noodles, and _he'd_ take Raito out somewhere nice for once, instead of the reverse.

Yeah, that would be the life, he mused wistfully as he sat on the floor eating ramen from a styrofoam cup with one hand and tapping out a text message with the other.

 _Hey Raito, about that thing you mentioned before. Any chance you can make that happen? I've been—_

A knock came at the door.

Shotaro scowled and looked up from his phone. "Who's there?"

"Um, package for Shotaro Hidari!" It was a woman's voice. Shotaro couldn't shake the feeling that he'd heard it somewhere before.

"I didn't order anything!" he called back. But he set down his phone and ramen and trudged to the door, grumbling the whole way there. Maybe it was work-related.

The girl he saw when he opened the door was definitely familiar. As he realized who she was, his eyes widened and he shouted in disbelief. He tried to slam the door shut, but the middle schooler shoved her body against it and forced her way in.

Shotaro scrambled toward the table where he'd left his Gaia Memory, but the girl slapped him upside the head with something before he could reach it. Was that a freaking house slipper?!

"Shotaro Hidari, or should I say _Joker Dopant_." The girl placed her hands on her hips. "You're the one who's been messing with my client, aren't you?"

"What the heck?! Get out of my apartment!"

"Hyoushoku Jewelry," the girl said, and Shotaro stiffened up. "You've been attacking people and vandalizing their property for weeks now. From the information my partner dug up, it's not a surprise. You're just some punk delinquent kid."

"Kid? I'm eighteen!"

"Heh, exactly." The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "So are you gonna stop, or do I have to beat you up again?"

Shotaro scowled. "Hey, _I_ was winning before."

"I thought you weren't going to fight a—" She grinned in a manner that she probably thought was adorable; "— _beautiful—_ " And then she scowled right back at him; "—'middle schooler'."

He shouted some more.

"So what is it? Do I have to beat some sense into you or are you gonna hand over your Memory willingly?"

Shotaro bristled. "Like hell! I need that thing!"

"To harass innocent businessmen with?"

" _Innocent_?" He scoffed.

"Yeah, like Satoru Enokida—"

"That asshole's not innocent!" Shotaro exclaimed. "He doesn't care about Fuuto! He's just trying to maximize his profits!"

"Like any good businessman," the girl said knowingly. "Big deal!"

"First he bought out the mom-and-pop florist in the strip mall where he has his current store," Shotaro pressed on. "Now he's negotiating to buy the Fuuto Youth Rec Center so he can tear it down and build some other store. That place has been here for decades!"

"Well, if they want to sell it to him..."

Shotaro rolled his eyes. "They're practically broke. They can't afford _not_ to. Not that I'd expect some middle schooler from Osaka to get it."

The girl glowered. Yep, he got her.

"So what now? Are you gonna beat me up or what?"

The girl looked torn. For the life of him, Shotaro couldn't tell what she was thinking. But finally she sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll talk to my client and get his side of the story, and if he's doing anything unethical I'll try and handle it myself. But in return, promise you'll stop harassing him, okay?"

That was actually a much better deal than Shotaro had been expecting. "Uh—okay."

"And hand over your—"

"No way! I told you I need it!"

"What for?"

He cringed. "Just get out of my apartment! I told you I'll leave the guy alone, okay? Now scram!" Shotaro grabbed the girl's arm roughly and shoved her back through the door. Before she could protest, he slammed the door behind her and slid the deadbolt into place.

He stopped. He stared down at his hand. He _never_ would have manhandled a girl like that before. Something really was wrong with him.

* * *

Akiko rested her elbows on her desk and her chin in her hands.

Why would somebody "need" a Gaia Memory? She only "needed" Diamond and the others so she could stop the bad guys. Wakana and even that Nasca jerk probably had similar justifications.

Wakana, meanwhile, was sitting in the lobby section of the office. She'd pulled the old-fashioned radio out of where it had been set into the wall and opened it up to take a look at its innards, and was prodding at it while glancing up at Akiko every so often.

Finally, Wakana let out a huffy sigh. "Just tell me what's wrong already."

Akiko twitched. "Huh? What? Hey— what are you doing to that radio?!"

"I'm examining it. It's fascinating."

"What happened to showers?"

"Upon further research, I decided your explanation was probably right. Now I'm researching radio broadcasting. So tell me what's the matter, Akiko—did something happen with the case?"

"Yeah." Akiko dropped her hands. "That Shotaro Hidari guy got really weird when I tried to get him to give up his Memory."

"Weird?" Wakana repeated.

"Like, he was making excuses. I even told him I'd take care of Enokida, so he shouldn't need it anymore."

"Did you offer to reimburse him for the amount he would have spent to buy it?"

"What?!" After her initial outburst, though, Akiko could see the logic. "If he gave it up, I guess it'd be like losing that investment, huh..."

Wakana shrugged. "Probably. I was never involved with sales, but I did sometimes hear researchers talking about how expensive Memories were."

Akiko scowled. Was she going to have to _buy_ the thing off of him?

"Is that all?"

"Actually, there's something I was hoping you could look up for me. It's about our client..."

* * *

Akiko hitched her messenger bag strap up on her shoulder and took a deep breath.

She rang the doorbell to Satoru Enokida's condo.

He was fairly well-to-do for a supposed small business owner, she noted. After a bumpy first two months, the Narumi Detective Agency was now operating in the black, but a place like this was still way out of Akiko's price range. It was huge, taking up the top two floors of a nice apartment building downtown. Akiko would _kill_ for the amount of money needed to own and maintain this place.

When Enokida answered the door, a smile broke out across his face. "Ah, detective! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"That Dopant won't be bothering you anymore," she said. "But there's something I need to talk to you about."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow, then stepped aside to let Akiko to come in.

She ran over the script in her head while Enokida gestured for her to sit down. She toed off her sneakers and looked around for a pair of guest slippers; when she found none, she finally settled for slipping on a pair of the green slippers from her bag.

"Would you like something to drink?" Enokida inquired.

"No. Actually, it's about the Dopant," Akiko said. "I've done some digging, and it seems like the attacks on your store didn't start until you began negotiations to purchase the Fuuto Youth Rec Center."

Enokida took a seat across the coffee table from her. "Well, yes, but..."

She nodded. "So I started thinking, maybe there was a connection. I looked into it a little more, and I was confused. Why would a jewelry store need that much space?"

Enokida frowned. "Well, I was hoping to expand to other merchandise."

"Right, right. So instead of just counterfeit jewelry, you wanted to add counterfeit other stuff?"

The room went silent.

" _What did you say?_ " Enokida hissed.

"Oh, nothing. I just found out all your merchandise is fake." Akiko shrugged dramatically. "Nice money-saving technique. You even covered your tracks really well."

"How did you—"

"A detective has her ways." She grinned smugly. _Thank you, Wakana!_

Predictably, Enokida wasn't happy. He got to his feet, ran his hand through his hair, and started to pace nervously.

 _Got you,_ Akiko thought.

"I made a mistake hiring you," he said.

Akiko stood up and put her hands on her hips. "You sure did. I haven't told the cops, by the way. And I won't, if you agree to—"

"Put a stop to purchasing the recreation center, no?" Enokida finished. "Unfortunately, that won't be happening."

She raised an eyebrow. "What, are you gonna bribe me?"

"Not quite." He pulled something out of his pocket and hiked up the fabric of his shirt to reveal a Gaia Memory connector port on his side.

"Oh crap—"

 ** _JEWEL!_** With a brilliant flash, the Gaia Memory transformed Enokida into a glittering, multifaceted Dopant. He lunged at Akiko before she could so much as flinch.

She went crashing into the sofa she'd been sitting on, knocking it backward to give her a slight barrier between herself and the Dopant. Not much of one. Just enough to give her some breathing room, enough time to toss aside her messenger bag and don the Double Driver.

 _"Did Shotaro Hidari break his word to you?"_ Wakana asked.

"No, the client was a Dopant too!"

Claydoll appeared in the Driver. Akiko followed it up with Diamond. **_CLAYDOLL! DIAMOND!_**

" _You_ were—?!"

Akiko didn't let Enokida finish his outburst. "Yup!" she replied, then leapt out and punched him in the face.

His body was tough. But the strength provided by the Diamond Memory balanced that toughness out. She could hear _clank_ ing sounds as her fist connected with his body, but it felt the same as any other punch. Still, she didn't want to imagine trying to punch the Jewel Dopant while un-transformed.

 _"Ugh, you mean we wasted our time helping out a Dopant?"_ Wakana griped. _"Hey, creep! Why didn't you just protect_ yourself _instead of hiring us?"_

The Dopant seemed surprised to hear a second voice coming from Double. "Me, fight that guy? The syndicate would have been all over me if I touched him!"

"So we were your fall guys, huh?" Akiko punched again. But just as she wasn't taking any damage from Jewel's hard body, he didn't seem to be harmed by her punches. They were evenly matched.

Enokida shoved Double away, and then there was a dizzying, disorienting flash of light. When Double reoriented themselves and lunged at the Jewel Dopant, they passed right through him and tripped over the coffee table.

 _"An illusion?!"_ Wakana exclaimed.

The real Jewel was in the opposite direction, it turned out. But before Akiko could go after him, Wakana stopped her. _"We're not getting anywhere like this. Let's switch Memories."_

Akiko nodded. She went for Music—a ranged weapon would help with this fight.

 ** _STAR! MUSIC!_**

Akiko readied her harp bow and an arrow from her quiver. When the arrow struck Enokida, a bright flash of light was released and he cried out.

The light died down and he didn't seem injured. Just temporarily blinded.

"I don't think this is going to work," Akiko whined.

 _"Fine, fine."_ Wakana pulled Star out of her half and replaced it with another Memory, its casing black and the label text green.

 ** _ZERO! MUSIC!_**

Double's dark blue right half gave way to black. The yellow trim was replaced with a stark, oversaturated green. Against the left half's lavender and white, it was quite the contrast.

"I don't remember this one," Akiko said. "I thought we only had six."

 _"We do."_ Wakana _tsk_ ed. _"You just lost count."_

Akiko counted on her fingers. Claydoll, Star, Diamond, Music, Ribbon... "Ah, right!"

 _"I thought you were better than this at math."_

Akiko rolled her eyes and didn't deign to justify that remark with a response. She drew another arrow and strung her bow, letting off a shot before Enokida could attack again. This time when the arrow struck his rock-hard shoulder, something different happened—he _fizzled_ , and a haze of green appeared—numbers appearing out of nowhere, ones and zeroes, appearing to Akiko's eyes almost like computer code.

Enokida cried out and grabbed his shoulder.

Akiko gasped. "It's working!" She fired another shot, this time hitting him in the side, and he fizzled again. It was actually hurting him!

 _"Let's do a Memory Break, now!"_

"Right!"

Akiko shoved the Music Memory into the slot on the back of the next arrow she drew. **_MUSIC! MAXIMUM DRIVE!_** Briefly, she wondered if they should have a cool name to call out as they did their finisher, but even before she could vocalize the thought she could feel a wave of bewilderment coming from Wakana. _Okay, okay, not now!_ Akiko conceded, and she let the arrow fly.

The arrow struck Enokida smack-dab in the center of his torso. A wave of bright green zeroes and ones appeared and disappeared rapidly, focusing in on the impact site, and he was suddenly engulfed in an explosion of black energy and thrown back into a wall. His Dopant form faded, and his Memory ejected and broke apart.

"Nice job," Akiko said brightly. "Now we just need to call the cops. Stag Phone!"

* * *

At the Fuuto Police Department, the man who took Double's call scowled.

* * *

When Wakana's Gaia Library sources had been unable to track Enokida's gemstone acquisition to any legitimate dealer, Akiko's reasonable assumption was that the jewels were counterfeit.

What she _didn't_ hear about until several days later was the aftermath of Jewel's Memory Break. All around Fuuto, jewelry purchased from Hyoushoku Jewelry underwent a transformation: The gemstones set into necklaces and watches and earrings suddenly turned into human beings.

And not just any human beings: People who'd been reported missing over the past several months.

("Does that qualify as counterfeit? Technically?" Wakana wondered when they learned the truth. Neither of them could decide. It didn't matter, anyway.)

* * *

When Kazehana High School let out that afternoon, a gaggle of teenagers streamed through the gates.

Shotaro stood to one side awkwardly. He'd always hated this place, and after he'd finally graduated, he'd promised himself he would never darken its doorstep again.

Well. He _wasn't_ going back, he was just waiting here for his boyfriend. That was different.

Raito Sonozaki walked right past him, stopped, and did a double-take. "Shotaro?"

"Uh, hey. I was gonna text you, but something came up and then I lost track of the time..."

"Are you apologizing for coming to see me?"

When Raito put it that way, it did sound dumb. Shotaro just shrugged and took his bookbag for him.

As they walked along the sidewalk in the direction of the Sonozaki mansion—Raito would have preferred to use one of the family cars, but Kazehana was close enough that his father thought the expense unwarranted—Shotaro was awkwardly silent. Finally Raito grabbed his arm, stopped walking, and pointedly asked him, "What is it?"

Shotaro's face flushed with anger. "It's just—jeez! It's this thing, okay?" He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out the Joker Memory. "What everyone says about the side effects are true. I don't know how much longer I can keep—" He growled, frustrated. "I want one of those Drivers like the higher-ups have."

"You're still only a salesman," Raito pointed out. But by the soft look on his face, he wasn't unsympathetic. Shotaro may have been the only person who could elicit this response from him. "...I'll discuss it with my sister."

"Really?" Shotaro breathed a sigh of relief.

"Of course. You're very precious to me, Shotaro."

Shotaro's cheeks grew redder, if that was possible. "I, uh— c'mon, let's go."

Raito chuckled. Hand-in-hand, the two continued their walk.

* * *

The spring breeze wafted through the window into the Narumi Detective Agency. Akiko sighed, pleased, and opened up her cute pink laptop to write her case report.

(In the storage space above the desk, shoved into one corner, was the old-style typewriter her father must have used. To her recollection, he never _had_ been great with modern technology.)

Wakana was still fussing with the office radio. She'd taken it entirely apart and the pieces were spread out on the table in front of herself. Well, Akiko hadn't been using that radio anyway. If it made Wakana happy then whatever.

Before Akiko could begin typing, the door to the office pushed open.

Wakana tensed up, but she had no time to hide herself before the person at the door walked in. It was a young woman wearing high heels, a skirt with a slit up one side, a shirt with such a low neckline her shoulders were exposed, and a fedora. Akiko had brushed up a bit on the film noir genre in the past few months, and this woman was the very picture of a femme fatale.

The woman approached Akiko's desk, wasting no time at all. "I need your help. My brother has been acting suspiciously—disappearing for days on end—and I have nowhere else to turn. Can you tail him for me?"

"Of course!" Akiko flipped her laptop shut. "Just give me his name and a picture and I'll find out what he's up to."

The woman pulled a photograph out of her purse. In it, she was standing with a nice-looking man with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Kirihiko. His name is Kirihiko Sudo."


	6. Venus In Relief

**The Sum of Our Parts / Venus In Relief**

"Kirihiko Sudo, huh...?" Akiko drummed her fingers on her desk, staring down at the photograph her client—Yukie—had given her. Apparently he had a job as a salesman for Windscale, a preppy Fuuto-owned clothing manufacturer and outlet. Akiko had also been given the address of the apartment Kirihiko and Yukie shared, so tailing him to see what he got up to wouldn't be tough.

But it couldn't hurt to have a leg up.

"Hey Wakana, want to give me a hand?" Akiko looked up. Wakana was nowhere in sight.

Akiko hadn't heard the office door, so she must be in the garage. Indeed, when she got up to check she saw that the door was slightly ajar.

Akiko stepped into the garage. She made her way down the spiral staircase to the lower half, where Wakana's bedroom had been built out of the way of the RevolGarry's path. Railings had been installed so Wakana could pull curtains across her space for privacy, but they weren't drawn right now. Akiko could plainly see that Wakana was sitting at her vanity table with something that almost looked like a radio in front of herself.

Radio, still? Akiko groaned. Wakana was usually more fickle than this.

"Hey Wakana," Akiko repeated. Wakana still didn't budge.

Drawing closer, she could see Wakana had a large pair of headphones over her ears. And she had a strange sort of microphone in her hand.

Wakana pushed down a button on the side of her mic. "Copy that, Butler," she said in English, and then laughed. "This is so much fun!"

Wait, was that...? Yeah, it was a CB radio! Akiko tilted her head in confusion. "Wakana, what the heck?"

Finally Wakana noticed her. Scowling, she spoke into the mic again. "Sorry, someone just started jabbering at me. I'll try to 10-10, Butler. Talk to you later."

Akiko folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot. Wakana didn't take her headphones off, but turned down the volume on the radio and gestured to indicate she was listening.

"What was that all about?"

"I bought some parts and built a CB radio," Wakana explained. "By boosting the output and converting the input and output to shortwave, I was able to reach truck drivers in the United States."

Was that even really _possible?_ By this point, Akiko couldn't put anything past Wakana. "Okay, but why?"

"Because radio is really interesting." Wakana pulled off her headphones and got to her feet. "It lets people talk with each other no matter how far away they are. You can hear the news, listen to music..."

"You know there's also TV and the internet for that, right? Radio's really outdated."

"But radio came _first!_ It set the stage for TV and the internet, and people are still using it for _really_ amazing things despite its limitations!" The smile on Wakana's face was so wide Akiko worried her head might split apart. "Akiko, I love it!"

This was a new look on her. Akiko didn't think any of Wakana's past interests had ever reached this level—maybe that time she'd discovered makeup and hair styling, since they had allowed her to leave the office with less fear of being recognized by Museum lackeys, but that was the only thing that came close.

So Akiko smiled. It was nice to see Wakana branching out. "That's great. But can I ask you a favor? We have a case."

"A Dopant?"

"It doesn't seem like it, right now at least. We're tailing a suspicious person."

Wakana rolled her eyes. "I'm not interested, then. I'm going back to my radio friends."

"Huh? But I could solve this case so fast if you'd just—"

"What about your daily fee~?" Wakana teased. She sat down and pulled her headphones back on. "Let me know if a Dopant becomes involved, A~ki~ko~!"

Akiko's cheeks puffed out in irritation. "Fine, I'll do it without you."

Wakana branching out was nice to see, but did she have to be such a _brat_ about it?

* * *

"Do you know this guy?"

Elizabeth took the photo Akiko was holding out. "Hm... He's pretty cute! What do you think, Queen?"

Queen pushed aside her milkshake and leaned over. "Hey, hey, I've seen him around! He's a salesman for Windscale!"

"I know that much. Do you know if he's been acting suspiciously at all, or...?"

"Not off-hand," said Elizabeth.

"Lemme send a text." Queen flipped her phone open. "A lot of kids at our school shop there."

It wasn't long before Queen received a response. "Ah, Miho's been waiting for his shifts to end because she has a _huge_ crush on him, but lately it looks like he's been working more irregular hours. Sometimes he leaves when he'd normally be taking lunch, and sometimes he goes out the back entrance... Sometimes she goes into the store and he's not there at all even though he _totally_ should be."

"That's weird," said Elizabeth.

"Completely weird!" Queen agreed.

"Thanks, that gives me something to go on," Akiko said. She slipped a couple of thousand-yen notes across the table.

"So stingy..." Elizabeth whined.

"Gotta go! I got a lead to chase." Grinning madly, Akiko bolted.

Was he having an affair with a married woman? Was he embezzling company profits? —was he, just maybe, embroiled in some Gaia Memory business? Well, whatever the answer was, Akiko was going to solve the mystery.

With or without Wakana's help.

* * *

Butler had to go. He'd changed lanes without signaling and now he had a Grizzly Bear on his case.

Giggling to herself, Wakana shut off the CB radio and headed up into the office. The music and news that played on the local radio stations were really interesting, too! She really liked the Wind Wave station, especially that really professional-sounding DJ, Motoko.

It was Motoko's voice that came across the waves when Wakana flipped the radio on.

"Hi there, listeners! It's Motoko here~ to let you know that Wind Wave Radio is currently on the lookout for new talent. If you think you've got what it takes, come on down to the station and fill out an application form. You could be the new voice of Fuuto!"

Wakana froze.

She couldn't. She _knew_ she couldn't—she was still being hunted. Leaving the office was one thing; she couldn't stay cooped up inside all the time, after all. But broadcasting her voice to the city...

They would find her.

Knowing that didn't do anything to quell the urge that was rising inside of her, though. She could disguise her voice. She could prerecord her lines and send them in from a remote location.

 _If she could connect with the city on a deeper level the way Motoko and other DJs were able to..._

A gentle breeze wafted through the open window and Wakana sighed.

 _...it sure would be nice._

* * *

Kirihiko Sudo was working the floor of the downtown Windscale outlet when Akiko arrived.

He was even better-looking in person than in the photo Yukie had provided. But she knew his type; he had the typical smarm of a greasy salesman. She knew if she tried to approach him he'd probably find some way to sell her a bunch of clothes or an overpriced piece of jewelry she didn't need.

She lurked behind racks of clothing, pretending to be looking for something to try on, always keeping him in the corner of her eye.

Finally her chance came. He headed to the time clock in the back of the store and clocked out. She casually followed him out the front door.

Akiko walked along behind Kirihiko, ducking into doorways and behind mailboxes whenever he thought to look behind himself. She was pretty sure he had no idea she was there. But eventually he stopped, sighed, and said, "Would you be so kind as to show me your face, whoever you are?"

"Erk." Akiko froze halfway to the nearest doorway.

Kirihiko turned around. He raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

Akiko growled.

He laughed. "I'm just kidding, of course. You do possess a certain maturity that belies your youthful appearance."

Oh, was that so? She stared at him in confusion, unsure how to feel. The compliment was nice, but she couldn't shake the slimy feeling from his words. And she got the sense she'd heard his voice somewhere before... She couldn't figure out where.

"Would you like some tea?" he offered.

Well, if he was paying... This would also give her a chance to gather some intel on him. So Akiko shrugged. "Sure, why not? You sure know how to sweet-talk a lady."

* * *

Kirihiko led Akiko to a little open-air cafe not far from the Windscale outlet. "To whom do I owe the pleasure?" he inquired. "I do have my fans, but it's not every day I wind up with a stalker."

"I'm not a stalker, I'm a—" She couldn't say she was a detective! That would be a dead giveaway! "A... a journalist! Writing an article on Windscale for the Fuuto, uh... Windly Newspaper." That was _probably_ a real newspaper.

Kirihiko smirked. He steepled his fingers. "So you want an interview?"

"I sure do." Akiko pulled out her notepad and a pencil. "Why don't you tell me about yourself, Mr., uh..."

"Sudo. Kirihiko Sudo."

"Ki-ri-hi-ko Su-do," she muttered as she wrote it down. She already knew that, of course. "How long have you been working for Windscale?"

"Oh, for several years now. Since 2005, if I remember correctly." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I've always loved what the brand embodies."

"Embodies...?"

"The city of Fuuto and the breeze that runs through it. Surely you understand? Fuuto's wind is like no other."

"It is very nice," Akiko admitted. Osaka's wind was pretty good too; they just didn't make as big a deal out of it down there.

"Do you know Fuuto's mascot, Fuuto-kun?"

"Fuuto-kun?"

Kirihiko pulled a keychain out of his breast pocket. It was a little plastic figure of a red character with a pinwheel-shaped head. Come to think of it... That was the same character who was on the pencil Santa-chan had given her way back on Christmas!

"Yeah, yeah, I know Fuuto-kun!" Akiko exclaimed. "What about him?"

Kirihiko smirked. He tucked the keychain back into his pocket. "I'm the one who designed him."

"No way."

"There was a contest when I was in elementary school: Design Fuuto's mascot. My design was the one chosen."

"Whoa." This guy did seem like a pompous jerk, but even Akiko had to admit that when he said he loved his city, he really seemed to mean it.

"So you see, my dear journalist, that's what I mean when I say—"

Akiko shrieked.

 _That's where she knew his voice from!_

"You—you're that Nasca jerk!" Akiko screamed.

Heads turned to stare at them from the other tables. The waitress, on her way with their orders, hesitated at the doorway.

Kirihiko groaned. "Would you mind keeping your voice down, Miss Double? I _do_ have a secret identity to maintain."

Whoops. Akiko covered her mouth. The waitress came by to drop off their drinks, bowing slightly and uttering a "Please enjoy."

When Kirihiko continued, he spoke in a more hushed tone than he had before. He didn't sound as pompous, either. "Yes, I'm 'that Nasca jerk'. You won't be causing any problems for me while I continue to protect Fuuto, now, will you?"

On the one hand, from what she'd observed so far, Akiko felt she could safely make the judgment that Kirihiko meant it when he said he loved this city. On the other, _she really didn't like him_.

"Fuuto already has a superhero protecting it," she protested.

"Do you know how widespread the Gaia Memory infestation is? It would take you years to solve the problem on your own." Kirihiko sighed. "I don't quite like the idea myself, but perhaps we could—"

"Work together? _Never._ "

"Actually, I was going to say we could split the city into different territories. I take the south side; you take the north."

"But my office is on the south side."

Kirihiko shrugged. "I'm being quite generous."

Akiko drank her tea, narrowing her eyes in irritation. No, she really, _really_ didn't like him.

"Why were you following me, anyway? You're clearly no true journalist, and you didn't know that I was Nasca, so that can't be it."

"I—I'm not telling you." Like hell was she going to sell Yukie out like that! "Hey, tell me, who gave you your Lost Driver and the Nasca Memory?"

Kirihiko's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "A mysterious woman dressed all in black. But I'd known about the Gaia Memory problem for quite some time beforehand. She merely gave me the methods I needed to protect this city."

That mummy lady? She was two-timing Double? "Why, the nerve of her..."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, nothing." Akiko grinned. "Thanks for the tea, by the way. I'm gonna keep fighting Dopants wherever I want, so try not to get in my way, okay?"

"You're just going to leave me with the bill?"

" _You_ invited _me_ here! What kind of man asks a beautiful woman out and then doesn't cover the tab?"

Kirihiko scowled. "You're shrewd, Miss Double."

"That's Narumi. Akiko Narumi." She finished off her tea and got to her feet.

She had a case to wrap up.

* * *

...except... what was she going to tell Yukie?

Akiko sat on Double's motorcycle, waiting at a red light, and hummed to herself in thought. _"Hey, I found out your brother's secretly a superhero!"_ would raise too many questions. Akiko and Wakana's identity as Double might even come out.

She groaned.

A horn honked behind her. Oops, the light had changed. She got moving.

* * *

A knock came at the door to Saeko's home office in the Sonozaki family mansion.

Saeko glanced up from her paperwork. She schooled her expression back down into something more neutral than _pure unbridled rage_ when she saw Raito standing there. "What is it?"

"The matter we discussed previously," he said simply. "I would like you to provide a Driver for Shotaro Hidari."

"He's not a commander."

"No, he's my boyfriend. The Joker Memory is negatively affecting his psyche. I'd like to prevent that."

Raito really was brazen. He was bright for his age, Saeko would give him that; he'd even been skipped ahead a grade early in his schooling. But he wasn't yet a full-fledged member of the family business.

He couldn't understand the demands it placed on Saeko.

She pursed her lips. "What benefit will it have for us?"

"The Joker Memory is very impressive," Raito pointed out. "Even without a Driver that much is obvious. The potential it holds _with_ one..."

"We have more than one Joker Memory. Why should we give your little boyfriend a Driver?"

"Simply put, Shotaro's compatibility with the Memory is off the charts. He rivals our family in that respect."

"Is that so...?" Boredly, Saeko flipped through the papers in front of her. None of them were about anything Raito was talking about. Production was falling behind after several months without Wakana. Why did she have to focus on her lovestruck little brother's ridiculous flights of fancy?

"We can run a trial at the lab," Raito suggested. "Then you'll see."

Saeko clicked her tongue against her teeth. "Fine. I'll oversee it. But you understand that Father will be making the final call."

The grin on Raito's face was almost enough to melt even Saeko's heart. "Thank you, Sister! You won't regret this, I'm sure of it!"

* * *

Two days passed without Yukie Sudo hearing from the detective she'd hired.

When she tried calling the Narumi Detective Agency, Akiko stammered out an excuse so weak a child could have seen through it. Something was up.

She packed her camera into her purse and set out for the agency. It looked like she would have to investigate the investigator.

* * *

Two days passed and Akiko still didn't know what to tell Yukie.

Wakana was no help. "How about the truth?" she'd suggested while piecing together some elaborate device. Yet more radio shenanigans, no doubt. She'd _tsk_ ed when Akiko had pointed out the problem that posed for Double, but she didn't have any other suggestions.

So Akiko continued on as normal. She focused on the agency's other cases—she found missing pets and she tailed a cheating husband to report on his whereabouts.

When the adulterer turned out to be a Dopant, she wasn't surprised. He was pretty much a scumbag already.

Double fought back against the Apple Dopant from a distance. Too close and they risked being hit upside the head with flying fruit, which was frankly a ridiculous concern. Music's bow was enough to protect them, but it didn't seem to do much against the Dopant itself.

That's when Kirihiko stepped into the fray.

What Kirihiko was even doing at this friendly neighborhood playground, neither Akiko nor Wakana could guess. But they knew what was coming next.

"You," he called to the Dopant, and the Dopant actually paused in its attack to turn and face him.

"Who are you?" the Dopant sneered.

"Someone who loves this city." Kirihiko donned his Driver and pulled out a translucent blue Memory. **_NASCA!_** "And I won't let you and your ilk sully it any further. Transform."

Kirihiko shoved his Memory into his Driver. **_NASCA!_** it repeated, and Nasca's blue armor coalesced around him. He hefted his sword and lunged.

 _"Tch. He's getting in our way,"_ Wakana complained.

"Just try not to hit him. He's a creep, but he's _technically_ on our side."

With Nasca drawing the brunt of the Dopant's attention, Akiko switched to Diamond so she could get in close and start punching Apple. When the Dopant leapt up onto a jungle gym, Double followed suit while Nasca remained down below to cut off any escape route.

Actually, having him fight alongside them was sort of convenient. It lightened the load, that was for sure.

Finally the Dopant was cornered. Double and Nasca had it backed up against a slide. It had nowhere to go but through them, and it was so beaten up that doing so didn't seem a likely possibility.

"So which of us is gonna finish it off?" Akiko wondered aloud.

To her surprise, Kirihiko bowed with a flourish. "Be my guest, my dear Double."

Well, she wasn't gonna say no. She stuck Diamond into the Memory slot on Double's right side. **_DIAMOND! MAXIMUM DRIVE!_**

The faceted white trim on Akiko's side and the maroom trim on Wakana's side started to shine brightly. Akiko pulled back her fist, and a diamond-hard casing formed around it. It burned brightly with Claydoll's gravitational energy.

 _We really need to come up with some cool finisher names,_ Akiko thought.

She punched, and Apple crumbled.

Once the Memory Break was complete, Akiko looked around. Nasca was nowhere to be seen. "Leaving us to handle the cleanup, huh...?" Akiko was starting to resent dealing with the cops. They were so nosy. Maybe this time they could make a getaway before any showed up.

"Kamen Rider!"

The eye on Wakana's side blinked as she said, _"Huh?"_

They looked around and their eyes landed on a crowd of onlookers that had gathered during the fight. They were cheering, whooping, pumping their fists victoriously. "Kamen Rider!" many of them cried out.

 _"Kamen Rider...?"_

"Do they mean us?" Akiko wondered.

The sound of police sirens cut through the air. The police were here to arrest yet another former Dopant.

* * *

Yukie set an envelope down on Akiko's desk. "Here; it's the fee for your services so far. I won't be needing you any longer."

"Eh?" Akiko sat up straight. "What, why not?"

Yukie smiled. "I just figured... My brother's his own person, you know? It's not like he's my boyfriend or anything. He can do what he wants with his life."

"Really?" Even as she said so, though, Akiko's hand inched toward the envelope containing the money.

A nod. "I was just being overprotective. I'm sorry to have troubled you."

Akiko accepted the money and Yukie took her leave.

In the hallway, she closed the office door behind herself and leaned against it, smiling. So both her brother and that detective were heroes, huh? What had that crowd called Akiko? "Kamen Rider"? That applied to Kirihiko as well, Yukie supposed.

There had to be a reason Akiko hadn't wanted to tell her. Either way, she knew the answer now; that's what mattered.

* * *

Shotaro was waiting at the school gate again that afternoon. Raito bounced right up to him.

"Good news," he said breathlessly. "My sister has agreed to a supervised test of Joker's ability with a Driver."

Shotaro grinned. "Really? Great! So when does that happen?"

"Actually, my father wanted me to tell you—you're invited for dinner." Raito latched on to Shotaro's arm. "Tonight."

That little factoid processed its way through Shotaro's head. Then he shouted. "To—tonight?!"

"Is that too soon?"

"Well—n-no, just, you need to give me a little more warning about this kind of thing, Raito!"

Raito smirked. "I thought you loved unpredictability."

Shotaro groaned. Really, he loved _Raito_. And if having this weird rich kid in his life meant things got a little unpredictable, then that was a price he was willing to pay.

* * *

"C'mon, c'mon." Akiko handed the spare helmet to Wakana. "We have to celebrate!"

"Celebrate being called 'Kamen Rider'? What does that even mean?"

"It means the people of this city have recognized us as their protectors, that's what! Now get on."

Wakana secured her helmet and climbed onto the bike behind Akiko. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere fitting, I think."

Four months Akiko Narumi had spent in this city, four months Wakana had been free of the organization, and yet both of them had only seen Fuuto Tower from afar. Tonight that was going to change.

They were alone in the elevator as it made its way up to the observation deck. Visiting hours were almost over, and there was a lull in tourism this week, so this was perfect.

They stepped out onto the deck and walked over to the railing. There, spread out in front of them, was the skyline of the city of Fuuto.

It was gorgeous, thought Akiko. It was no Osaka, but it had its own charm. The nighttime lighting was gorgeous, and up here, the wind did feel good as it blew through her hair.

She looked over at Wakana.

Wakana was laughing so hard her eyes teared up.

"This is beautiful!" Wakana exclaimed. She wiped her eyes, then covered her mouth. "I haven't seen Fuuto from this angle before. Akiko, I..."

Something in Akiko's heart leapt.

Wakana grabbed Akiko's hands and swung them back and forth. " _Thank you!_ You know, that Kirihiko guy's right about one thing. This city is great."

Akiko's cheeks heated up. She withdrew her hands, brushed back a stray lock of hair, and turned back toward the railing. "It's nice, yeah..."

Wakana gripped the railing and leaned out as far as she could, which wasn't very. "I want to protect it even more after seeing this. I want to break every single one of those Gaia Memories I created and make sure this city is safe."

Akiko nodded. It _wasn't_ Osaka, but it was the city her father had chosen as his garden. She'd taken on the responsibility of getting to the bottom of this mess, and that meant protecting Fuuto.

"Me too," she said.

A good wind surrounded them.

* * *

 _Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts._  
—Ray French, et al

* * *

This is the final chapter. I hope it doesn't disappoint!

For future updates, feel free to subscribe to this story. I seriously can't predict when the next part will be posted... or, truthfully, if there will _be_ a next part. I want there to be, I really do, but if you've been following along with this story from the start you know I'm no good at consistent updates. I do have some scattered outlining done for a second chaptered story and I have a _lot_ I want to do, both with the characters already introduced and with characters who haven't appeared yet... so who knows?

At the very least, there are a couple of one-shots I want to write in this universe: One about Wakana doing certain things, and one about the history of how Shotaro and Raito met. If nothing else, maybe I'll just churn out some individual casefic without an overarching myth arc, and of course one day I want these two girls to smooch.

But, again, I can't promise anything. Please note that comments along the line of "When are you going to write more?" will not help my creative process.

Thank you so much for reading this far. If nothing else, I hope this semi-conclusion is to your liking!


End file.
